FI^ANKL1N-SPENCER:SPALDING 

MAN AND BISHOP 




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FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 
MAN AND BISHOP 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

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TORONTO 




FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 



FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 



MAN AND BISHOP 



BY 

JOHN HOWARD jyiELISH 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1917 

All rights reser'ved 



cv6 



^n> 



Copyright, 1917, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Printed from type. Published May, 1917. 



MAY 24 1917 



J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



©GIA462619 



BetJicatifiin 

TO THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BEST AND 

LOVED HIM, AND WITHOUT WHOSE AID THIS BOOK 

COULD NOT HAVE BEEN WRITTENy^ BY ONE 

WHO ADMIRED AFAR OFF 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Boy i 

II. Frank Spalding, Princeton '87 . . . .12 

III. The Choice of a Profession 29 

rv. Theological Student 35 

V. Jarvis Hall Days 48 

VI. The Parish House 57 

VII. Spiritual Growth 71 

VIII. His Approach to the Social Problem ... 82 

IX. Called to Be a Bishop 97 

X. The Church in Utah 122 

XI. Salt Lake City . . . . . . . . 148 

XII. MORMONISM . 161 

XIII. Begging East and West . . . . . .178 

XrV. The Church in the Mining Camp .... 206 

XV. The Church and Socialism 236 

XVI. Man among Men •. . . 257 

XVn. Manoach . 276 



Vll 



FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

MAN AND BISHOP 



The Boy 

Frank Spalding sprang from New England stock. His 
father, the Bishop of Colorado, was one of the virile men 
whom Maine contributed to the building up of the Great 
West. The Spalding family came to America from England 
in 1630, and played an honorable part in King PhiHp's war, 
the French and Indian war, and the Revolution. John 
Franklin Spalding, the father of the subject of this biography, 
was bom at Belgrade in 1828, and graduated from Bowdoin 
College in 1853 and the General Seminary in 1857. After 
service as deacon and presbyter in New England, he became 
rector of St. Paul's Church, Erie, in 1862. In the house 
which is now the rectory of that Pennsylvania parish he 
met Lavinia D. Spencer, an ardent and devoted member 
of the Presbyterian Church. It was love at first sight, and, 
not many months later, the daughter of one of the prominent 
trustees of the Park Presbyterian Church was established as 
head of the Episcopal rectory. 

Of that union Frank was bom on March 13, 1865. At 
his baptism, June 13, 1865, he was named Franklin after 
his father and Spencer after the family of his mother. 
The Spencers were originally of Connecticut. Judah Colt 



2 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Spencer went to Erie in 1829, and there married Lavinia 
Stanley, the daughter of Giles Sanford, a descendant of 
John Sanford, the first President of Rhode Island in 1655, 
who was disarmed in 1637 for his sympathy with Wheel- 
right. Mr. Spencer was noted among his fellow citizens 
as a man of independent judgment, quick repartee and keen 
humor, hiimiHty and generosity. He was one of the pro- 
jectors of the first railway in western Pennsylvania, and 
organized the First National Bank of Erie, which was one of 
the first national banks incorporated in the United States. 
Lavinia Sanford united with the Presbyterian Church as a 
girl, and through three score years and nine lived a life of 
prayer and service. Four daughters and one son were 
born to the Spencers, of whom Lavinia D., the mother of 
Frank Spalding, was the second child. 

Into the Erie rectory, after Frank, came four other 
children between 1866 and 1873 when John F. Spalding 
was elected to the episcopate. William was eighteen 
months younger than Frank and was his comrade all through 
school and college. Elisabeth, who was Frank^s junior by 
three years, lived with him in Erie during the second year 
of his rectorship of St. Paul's. Ned, the yoimgest brother, 
died at sixteen years of age, when he was a student at the 
Princeton preparatory school where Frank was teaching. 
Sarah, the yoimgest member of the family, lived with Frank 
during the last years of his rectorship in Erie and went to 
Salt Lake as his secretary. Under the spiritual guidance of 
Christian parents and in the normal family life, with brothers 
and sisters near his own age, Frank grew to boyhood and 
young manhood. As the first grandchild of generous 
grandparents and the first baby bom in the parish for 
many years, his first Christmas brought him many gifts. 
His mother trimmed a Christmas tree for him and all 



THE BOY 3 

expected, after the fashion of grown-ups, that he would be 
deUghted with his expensive toys. While others were 
admiring the tree and presents, the baby crept from the 
parlor into the kitchen, where he was found, perfectly happy, 
playing with some clothes-pins. All through his life the 
simple and elemental things gripped him. 

Frank was first entered at a small private school in Erie 
but was soon transferred to the pubUc schools. In his 
first attempt to speak in public he failed. Three times 
he began his piece, but stage fright got the better of memory 
and he finally sat down. Very early in his career he showed 
signs of the possession of the indomitable will which later 
conquered the Grand Teton and faced spiritual difficulties 
of magnitude. One night when he was supposed to be 
asleep in his bed his mother found him seated at his Uttle 
desk, playing on a Jew^s harp. When she reproved him 
for sitting up so late, he repHed, with decisiveness that 
drew no further remonstrance from the wise mother, ^^I 
am going to get this tune, if it takes all night. '^ So fearless 
and independent a httle chap he was, that his reverent 
parents feared that the quality, which is the beginning of 
all wisdom, was entirely wanting in his spiritual equip- 
ment. His mother was mortified to hear him say to the 
dignified Bishop Kerfoot who was teasing him, "Stop 
that." On another occasion when she asked him to come 
and speak to some callers who were about to leave, he 
frankly if impolitely called back, "I have nothing to say." 
But she, who sat at the feet of her children and learned, 
as the Lord commanded His disciples to do, understood. 
For what has a child to say? And this child was father 
to the man who spoke when he had something to say, and, 
when not, kept silent. 

It was the custom in St. PauFs, encouraged by the Rec- 



4 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

tor, to have all the children of the parish attend the church 
service, and to withdraw just before the sermon. Sunday 
School was held immediately before church and a goodly 
percentage of the scholars stayed to Morning Prayer. The 
great feasts of the Church Year were joyfully kept and the 
children found no hardship in going to church. From the 
time he could read Frank was taught to read the Bible 
morning and evening. On Sunday evenings there were 
scripture games at home, which made the boy familiar with 
the Bible. The rectory had two mite boxes, one for 
Domestic and one for Foreign Missions, into which the 
children dropped weekly offerings. The father, who was 
a missionary rector before he became a missionary bishop, 
wanted his boys and girls to feel that they belonged to 
a Church which embraced the whole world. So the] boy 
from his infancy was a part of the Church, with his own 
share in its worship and work. His interest in the Church 
was as natural and normal as his interest in play or school. 
A time came when Frank Spalding questioned his intel- 
lectual right to remain longer in the Church ; and, without 
doubt, it was this early influence that steadied his will in 
those trying moments of mental uncertainty and indecision. 
Frank was eight years old when his father was elected 
Missionary Bishop of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. 
In school, on the day the newspapers announced the father's 
honor, the son was dubbed "Bishop" by his classmates. 
Such a title, however, was no honor to his thinking, and 
finally, losing patience, he threatened to fight the next 
fellow that called him that again. With five children, the 
youngest being only fourteen months old, it was a great 
change for Bishop Spalding to make, from the comfortable 
home and happy associations of Erie to what was to East- 
ern people an unknown country. At the Bishop's conse- 



THE BOY 5 

cration in St. PauFs, Erie, on the last day of December, 

1873, Bishop Cox preached from the text, ^'The uttermost 
parts of the earth/' So indeed it seemed, especially to 
the mother, who was torn between accompanying her hus- 
band and running the risk of taking her brood of small 
children on the long journey in winter. She asked the 
friendly advice of the bishops present at the consecration. 
Bishop John C. Talbot, who was called the "Bishop of all 
out-doors, '^ having been the first bishop of Colorado and 
the Northwest, insisted that he knew all about the journey 
and the good Church people of Denver, and that they 
would have the Bishop's house ready for occupancy on his 
arrival; he urged the family to go. Bishop Kerfoot, on 
the contrary, advised Spalding to go first to prepare the 
home and have the family follow later. Bishop Kerfoot 
said that Bishop Talbot knew nothing about it because he 
had never had any children, and Bishop Talbot said Bishop 
Kerfoot knew nothing about it because he had never been 
to Denver. Bishop Talbot's advice, however, was fol- 
lowed and the family arrived safely in Denver, February 27, 

1874, after a blockade of twenty-four hours, caused by snow 
on the plains. The good Church people of Denver justified 
Bishop Talbot's faith in them; the house was furnished 
and supper was ready. 

On the train to Denver Frank wrote to his grandmother 
a little letter, which, though he was but eight years old, 
showed the beginnings of his power of clear description. 
"February 26, 1874. My dear Grandma: Mama tcld me 
to write the first letter to you. I am going to write what 
I saw. Some men were playing cards. One man beat the 
other and they began to fight in the car. It is snowing 
very hard now. It began this morning and has not stopped 
yet and I guess it never will. Your loving Frank Spalding." 



6 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Jarvis Hall at Golden was a Church School for boys, and 
its principal, Mr. Bellam, urged the Bishop to send his boys, 
Frank and Will, there. In a letter to his grandfather, 
Frank wrote, "Mr. Bellam is here and wants me to go to 
Jarvis Hall, but Mama says I am too little. Don't you 
think, Grandpa, it would be best to go now and be a good 
scholar than not?" The Mother's refusal to give her 
permission to send the boys when so young to a boarding 
school won the day, and they went first to a small private 
school and then to the pubHc schools of Denver. 

The Bishop was away from home so much of the time 
that the care and education of the children fell largely to 
the mother. "I have one high strung case in my eldest 
boy," she wrote to her parents in March of that year, "and 
I can only trust to time and to Providence to make him 
better. Don't be alarmed, he is no worse than in Erie. 
I looked for a great change on his ninth birthday, but it 
did not come." However disturbed the mother was, be- 
cause of Frank's quick temper and the effect of it on the 
other children, she wisely met the difficulty by giving him 
something to interest him and serve as an outlet for his 
physical and mental energies. A small printing press and 
scroll saw were purchased, and tramps were planned for the 
Saturdays. Frank was himself so full of ideas and of init- 
iative that he at once put these tools to good use, earning 
money to add to his kit and to spend on his tramps. She 
also hit on a plan which worked admirably with all the 
children. A book was opened, and all their important 
deeds, good and bad, were recorded therein for the perusal 
of their father, on his return. Writing down the deed in 
the book had the instantaneous effect of stopping their 
naughtiness. With something to do, and a miniature Day 
of Judgment calling him periodically to account, the boy 



THE BOY 7 

made rapid progress in the control of his quick temper 
and hewed his hfe to the straight Hne of duty and right. 

Tools were ever a source of delight to Frank Spalding, 
both as boy and man. His first scroll saw was a gift, but 
he was expected to earn the tools which he desired. "I am 
trying to earn $4.00 to pay for a box of tools and I have only 
35 cts. I have been making sacks out of the stuff that came 
on our furniture,'' he wrote to his grandfather, offering 
doubtless a gentle hint to that generous friend. Grand- 
father was quick to respond with a present for tools. "The 
saw, hammer, and plane were $2.00, the chisel cost 60 cts., 
rule 25 cts., brace and bits $1.00, augur 65 cts., screw 
driver 25 cts., mallet 25 cts." So he reports to the donor, 
in the methodical fashion with which he kept all his Church 
accounts throughout his ministry. In another letter he 
refers to a loan which his grandfather had made, as "the 
heavy debt that oppressed me.'' 

The pubHc school boy of Denver took to his lessons with 
as much interest as to tools and tramps. The mother 
wrote home in October, "Frank and WilHe are good and 
learning fast. Frank can already divide with four or five 
figures." He was regularly promoted and was soon study- 
ing Botany as well as Spelling, Writing, Arithmetic, and 
Geography. To a Mr. Lakes, an enthusiastic geologist, 
Frank attached himself, and followed him in his collecting 
jaunts, learning from him the names of stones and picking 
up information as to drifts and periods of the earth's his- 
tory. He was now in a school-room with older boys and 
had Uttle difficulty in keeping up with them. His was one 
of the twenty papers, showing penmanship, which the 
Denver Public Schools sent to the Centennial in 1876. 
Frank told his Grandfather that he must look up the educa- 
tional exhibit, during his visit to Philadelphia, and find the 



8 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Denver book which contained his paper. His mother 
wrote that "Frank will go without his dinner rather than 
be late/' As a boy he was always asking why. In the 
evenings the father had all the children debate in his study, 
thinking it very important to learn how to argue. Frank 
often took the weak side of a question, or even the side he 
really did not agree with, in order to draw out the other side. 

On one of the visits to Erie, which took place on the 
alternate summers, the boys were invited out to tea with 
a boy friend. They did not return until quite late, and 
Frank's excuse was that he had got to arguing with the boy's 
father and did not think of the time. His reading was 
confined to stories, in spite of his father's urging to read 
better things. He hked Oliver Optic, Horatio Alger, Elijah 
Kellogg and Jules Verne. With a memory of those early 
joys he presented his nephew in later years with a complete 
set of the favorite tales of his own boyhood. 

Every alternate vacation was spent on a ranch in the 
mountains. There the mother's problem was solved, for 
climbing, riding, fishing, left no moments for idle hands to 
get into mischief. An incident occurred during the first 
vacation which showed Frank's obedience to orders, at 
whatever cost to himself, which trait characterized his 
entire life. A little boy at the ranch was taken sick and 
his mother became much alarmed. There was no doctor 
nearer than twelve miles, but at the ranch was the wife of 
a physician ; she knew that her husband was to drive that 
day to a house within several miles of the ranch, and she 
suggested that some one go to the 6ross roads and intercept 
the doctor. Frank was sent on horseback to wait for the 
physician until he came. The day passed and no Frank or 
doctor returned. Finally, Mrs. Spalding and the doctor's 
wife went out to hunt for them. There at the cross-roads 



THE BOY 9 

he was, just as he had been told to be, seated on his horse, 
and, Uke Casablanca, there he would have stayed to the end. 
One of his favorite mottoes in after years was, "To endure 
is to conquer," and early in life he acted it out. 

In 1877 it was decided to send the boys to Jar vis Hall, 
the Church boarding school at Golden, and the mother 
parted from them with a heavy heart. The absence lasted, 
however, but a few months as Jarvis Hall, after a fire, was 
transferred to Denver. "Dear Grandpa," writes Frank, 
"we are going to school at the new Jarvis Hall in Denver 
instead of Golden and the Boss is Mr. Haynes instead of 
Mr. Bellam. Mr. Ha3aies is a good teacher if he did come 
from Harvard College and not Princeton College." Frank 
was busy with his press, and printed cards and letter heads 
for other boys and girls. A sheet of note paper bears the 
heading "F. S. Spalding, W. M. Spalding, Job Printing 
Very Neatly Done." With the scroll saw he made several 
brackets for presents to his grandparents and a well-carved 
Swiss clock for his father and mother. The boys had 
their regular chores and were taught to be useful at home, 
for a missionary bishop's salary did not permit of more 
than one servant. They made their own beds, tended the 
furnace and cleared the snow from the walks. One winter 
morning before breakfast Frank went out to clear the snow, 
but did not return imtil long after school time. He and a 
friend after clearing their own walks formed a partnership 
to clear other people's side-walks at twenty cents apiece, 
and made a dollar each. He assured his anxious mother 
on his return that he hl.d not asked a job of any of her 
friends ! Such industry on his part pleased the grand- 
father in the East, and he wrote to Frank, "If your funds 
should be a little short draw on your grandfather and he 
will honor the draft." That he was not slow to comply 



lO FEANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

with this generous request the following note shows. "Dear 
Grandpa : I thank you very much for that $5.00. As my 
saw is broken I am going to get another saw. I can get 
an elegant saw and I can do very fine work. I and Will 
sing in the choir and we sing good as you will know when 
you come here in the spring." This delightful apprecia- 
tion of his own accomplishments and his joy in doing things 
never left him. Throughout his life, though burdened with 
the business of hospitals, schools, and mission stations, he 
was glad that he had a work to do and rejoiced that he 
could do it. Could the generous donors to his work have 
seen the radiant joy in his face when their help arrived it 
would have added much to their joy of giving. 

On the second Sunday after Easter, 1879, Frank was 
confirmed by his father in Trinity Memorial Church. It is 
interesting to record that the boy turned to his teacher 
in that solemn moment of his Hfe rather than to those 
whom he most loved. Many boys find it difficult to dis- 
cuss spiritual problems with their fathers and mothers, 
either because they fancy their parents are prejudiced in 
their favor or do not understand them. The mother, with 
her usual intuition, made no advances beyond suggestions, 
she simply prayed for him. Frank talked the question 
over with Mr. Haynes, and, on his return from his inter- 
view, simply remarked to his mother that "Confirmation 
is a big thing." The next morning he announced at the 
breakfast table, "I am going to be confirmed." At four- 
teen he took his stand for Christ and His kingdom. He was 
found faithful unto his life's end. 

The summer of 1880 was spent in Erie, and Frank, then 
fifteen years old, took his first interest in politics. Several 
boys of his own age formed a club which they named after 
President Garfield. The meetings were secret and were 



THE BOY II 

held in an outhouse in grandfather's garden. Little Ned, 
not being old enough to qualify as a member, was appointed 
sentry to keep outsiders away. Frank was President, and, 
in the name of the Club, wrote to Mr. Garfield. He said 
that the members were too young to vote for the President, 
but, nevertheless, "they met regularly and made speeches 
against the Democrats." Great was the joy and pride of 
the Garfield Club when a letter arrived from Mr. Garfield 
containing his picture and autograph. 

It is the picture of a genuine American boy that we see 
in Frank Spalding. Long of limb, with sinewy frame, he 
lived in the open air ; taking to the water and the mountains 
like an Indian, like an Indian he grew in stature and physical 
strength. Always the first up a steep climb, he yet was 
ever ready to help others up, or go to their rescue if in 
danger of falling. His nerves were steady, though high 
strung, and he was their master. When the steam launch 
with its pleasure party was in danger on Lake Erie, it was 
his coolness and pluck that inspired confidence in girl and 
boy. Always enthusiastic, he was the soul of the company 
on any tramp, propounding queer questions, arguing, com- 
posing rhymes and jingles. Underneath this gay and happy- 
nature was a sense of duty and love of right and reverence 
for God. He grew in self-knowledge and self-mastery as 
he grew in body and mind. So through the years of boy- 
hood God was fitting him to be the spiritual pioneer and 
missionary prophet. As in his early mountain climbing, 
so in his later preaching he was to go first, questioning it 
may be, but sure of his footing, as far as he got ; with a spirit 
ready to help others to his high level and to share with them 
the beauty of his vision. 



II 

Frank Spalding, Princeton '87 

Frank Spalding prepared for Princeton College at 
Jarvis Hall under Professor Smiley and entered without a 
condition in the fall of 1883. The question of higher 
education for her boys rested heavily upon the mother's 
mind, for the Bishop's salary permitted no such luxury, 
and frequently she prayed over it. Providence answered 
her prayer in a letter from the generous grandfather which 
brought tears to her eyes; he promised to meet all the 
expenses for both his grandsons during their entire college 
course. In expressing her profound gratitude Mrs. Spald- 
ing wrote, "I can only hope and pray that they may be 
worthy of your gift and that you may see your reward in 
their usefulness." It was an investment in men, the golden 
returns from which he never lived to see but which have 
added to the lasting wealth of the American Church. 

The boys chose Princeton because their favorite uncles 
were Princeton men. Princeton appealed to the Bishop and 
his wife by virtue of its religious influence, and because of 
the personal interest in Church boys taken by Dr. Alfred 
Baker, rector of Trinity Church. They had been told 
that Dr. Coit of St. PauFs School, Concord, recommended 
Princeton before all other colleges on that ground; and 
what influenced the mother as much was the further in- 
formation that Mrs. McCosh, wife of the President, went 

12 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 13 

to see the boys when they were sick and sent them nice 
things to eat. In parting from his boys the Bishop urged 
them not to allow anything to prevent their attention to 
their reUgious duties ; he wanted them to be ambitious to 
take high rank as scholars, and to do well in everything ; 
but first of all he would have them be young Christian 
gentlemen. In their rank as scholars he was to be disap- 
pointed, for they, in his brother Will's words, *^ stuck in 
a comfortable position about the middle of the class." 
Christian gentlemen, however, they were and remained all 
through college, for, as Frank wrote his father, at the end 
of his course, "It is a satisfaction to know if you don't 
stand high you have been honest in all your work." 

Since his grandfather was pa)dng all the expenses, an 
opportunity to make full use of his generosity and money 
was opened to Frank. His grandmother wrote him to 
get everything he needed and not to delay purchasing new 
clothes — she knew weU that Frank didn't care a bit about 
what he had on ; — that clothes were the last things he 
would think of. When he was a boy he had a supreme 
contempt for anything approaching a "dude." So with 
characteristic humor she urged, "Do not make the change 
from old to new clothes too perceptible!" He had been 
brought up to know the value of money and the grand- 
father's confidence was not misplaced. In later life Frank 
Spalding arraigned the rich, who Hve on profits, rent and 
interest, for indulging in luxury that wasted human Hfe 
and energy. With the opportunity to indulge in luxury, he 
practiced the strictest economy. When^his mother im- 
packed his wardrobe the following June she found that he 
had not a pair of trousers that were not mended. In a 
letter he says, "I did a job of patching on my pants that I 
dare any of you to equal for strength and general excel- 



14 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

lence/* He put cloth in the place of cane in the seat of the 
chairs in his room because cane wore out his trousers. 

Frank's Presbyterian grandmother held the learned 
and Christian men of Princeton in great reverence, and 
urged her grandsons to make use of every opportunity to 
hear them preach. "It is an important part of your col- 
lege education, like feeding on the best of food. I am glad 
my boys can appreciate it.'' Frank heard every preacher, 
as his beloved grandmother advised, but he seems not to 
have been favorably impressed, except by Dr. John Hall, 
and by him, "because he was like one of our ministers, 
wore clericals and talked quietly." The St. Paul's Society, 
a group of students who were members of the Episcopal 
Church, invited distinguished preachers of that Communion 
to preach from time to time to them. All these he heard 
with interest, writing home their texts or a summary of 
their sermons, and characterizing them in some interesting 
way. Fr. Maturin was magnificent, he was so clear; 
Fr. Hall was interesting; Dr. Dix was superb; Dr. 
Kimber knew what he was talking about; Mr. Studd 
"talked for fifty minutes and you could have heard a 
pin drop." When he was the Managing Editor of the 
Princetonian he wrote that Phillips Brooks was the first 
preacher in America. "One of the editors told me that 
any one could tell by that, who had written the article. 
I don't know as I ought to have said that in a Princeton 
paper when all here think Dr. Paxton or Dr. Patton is the 
best preacher." 

In February of each year a day was set apart as a Day of 
Prayer for Colleges, and in Princeton it marked the begin- 
ning of what was called a "reUgious awakening." Prayer 
meetings were held twice a day, and in each of the entries 
of the college buildings there were special meetings. Frank 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 1 5 

Spalding questioned the value of those meetings all through 
his college course and wrote home asking for advice as to 
what attitude he should take toward them. "One of the 
fellows told me he had been to the prayer meetings to-day, 
and he thinks we are very wicked because we don^t go even 
to the class prayer meetings. I don^t think it is my duty 
to go and yet I have often had fellows say to me, ^Here, 
you are a Christian and yet you don^t go to these meetings 
and set a bad example to many and keep them away when 
they ought to be there. ^ Now I want advice as to this 
prayer meeting business, I almost wish we were not in a 
college with such a good reUgious influence.^' The Book of 
Common Prayer was for him a sufficient expression of wor- 
ship and prayer, and he objected to what he described as 
"the prayer meeting style of deUvery." 

To the Bishop, depending for his information on the 
letters of his two boys and the columns of the Prince tonian, 
the modern college seemed to exist chiefly for the purpose 
of fostering athletic games. In college athletics Frank 
Spalding rejoiced as a giant to rim his course. He made the 
class baseball team, pla)dng at third base. Later in his 
college career he was captain of the second foot-ball team, 
playing full back and half back, which entitled him to the 
coveted cap, and he played on the Varsity Team in several 
games. "This noon I played on the scrub, '^ he writes to 
an old school friend, "against the college team and I had 
to play against the strongest rusher in college. So he nearly 
killed me. But I had lots of fun and hope to get another 
chance to play." During his college course he won about 
thirty medals in athletics, principally in standing and run- 
ning high and broad jumps, pole vaults and hurdle races. 
"We had lots of fun Saturday night," writes the younger 
brother. "Twenty-seven of us got in our room for a boxing 



1 6 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

match ; that is not a regular match but everybody taking 
part and ending up with two good boxers, one of whom has 
taken prizes for it. There were eight or nine of us on Frank's 
bed when down it went with a crash. Then some one fell 
against the stove, and pulled the chimney apart, but Frank 
with his accustomed genius put it together and the affair 
closed with great success." 

In his Sophomore year Frank Spalding was suspended 
from college. According to the traditions of Princeton, in 
November the Freshmen class had their picture taken on 
the steps of Witherspoon Hall ; and also, according to tra- 
dition, it was the high and sacred duty of the Sophomore 
class to spoil the picture. It occurred to some members of 
the class of '87 that the way to reveal to the Freshies their 
true character was to let down an effigy of '88 just when the 
photographer was ready to snap the picture. One fellow 
furnished a pillow case, another paint and a third the 
requisite art, and soon a rag baby of considerable bulk 
was ready with '88 conspicuously painted in green upon its 
white breast. When the eyes of all the Freshmen were 
turned to the camera man, and each was looking his hand- 
somest, there silently descended from a window above the 
steps of Witherspoon the rag baby and took by far the most 
prominent place in the picture. The photographer stopped, 
and the Freshmen, seeking the reason for the delay, looked 
up. A dozen hands made a grab for the baby ; which was 
dexterously pulled up out of their reach. Others gathered 
stones from the gravel walk and hurled them through the 
open window at the unseen enemy. At that critical moment 
a college proctor chanced to come that way and, seeing the 
disturbance was caused by some one in the room above 
the steps, he shouted orders to stop it. A head appeared 
at the window followed by a pitcher of water which was 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 1 7 

emptied upon the upturned faces of the Freshmen. It was 
Frank Spalding and he was caught in the very act. 

The Faculty Committee on Discipline called a meeting 
that night and summoned Frank and four other culprits to 
appear before them. Spalding was charged with being the 
ringleader and was given an opportunity to confess, which 
he did most ingenuously, acknowledging his acts but dis- 
claiming any intention of wrong doing. Then Professor 
Packard, the chairman, as Frank wrote home, "made a 
speech which was terrible and said that I had done the worst 
kind of a thing and that he was so surprised to see me there 
and lots like that.'' All ^ve were suspended imtil further 
notice. Four were sent home at once and Frank, because 
he lived in the West, was rusticated in Pennington, eight 
miles from Princeton. Suspended ! Professor Packard, 
his father's old friend, had rendered the verdict and told 
him that he would at once write his father. It was a de- 
pressed and sad-faced lad who packed his bag and took the 
train to Pennington the next morning. How would his 
father regard this disgrace? What would mother feel? 
The grandparents, who sent him to college, what would 
they think? And Aunt Fanny who believed that the 
Princeton faculty could do no wrong, and Uncle Will, a 
Princeton graduate, how would they take this? 

The following letter reveals, what was characteristic 
of Frank Spalding, his fine sensitiveness, consideration for 
others, sense of justice, transparent frankness and desire 
to do what was right. 

Princeton, Oct. 30, 1884. 

My dear Father: I suppose when you get this letter you 
will have received Professor Packard's and will know all about 
it. You can't feel as badly as I do, for I know how badly you 
will feel. But I wish very much you could be here to see what 



1 8 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

the college thinks about it. All the fellows in all the classes 
think that we are unjustly punished and they are trying to get 
our sentence repealed. 

Professor Packard read me the letter he wrote you and in it 
he said I was a ring-leader. Now that was not true for I did not 
lead at all, and I never for a moment thought that I was doing 
any act which would bring dishonor on you or on myself, and 
now I can't think so. However it is, I have been suspended and 
know it is a terrible disgrace, although I never thought that I 
was doing anything wrong. 

While I am away I will go on studying and so will not drop 
back in grade for I shall have an examination on it when I come 
back. Of course I have written Grandfather about it. 

Professor Murray told me I was charged with ist. Helping to 
make a rag baby to expose to the Freshmen, 2nd, Throwing stones, 
3rd, Pouring out some water on them. I can't see how this is 
worthy of such a hard punishment as I have. All the trouble 
lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes, so please don't think that 
it was a big row I was in. I don't know for how long a time I 
shall be suspended but I hope it will be a short time. I sup- 
pose it will be very lonely to stay in a town for perhaps a month 
where I don't know a single person, but I expect to read and 
study a good deal and will try to make the best of it. 

So, dear papa, please don't think too hard of me for I would 
not have done such a thing for the world if I had thought for a 
second there was such harm in it as in the eyes of the Committee, 
for I am sure you know that I would not knowingly do anything 
that would dishonor you or mama. 

Your loving son, 

F. S. Spalding. 

Frank reached Pennington and went at once to the 
Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in whose care the Com- 
mittee placed him during his rustication. The letter of 
commendation read that the Pastor was to do him "what 
good he could.'' Then Frank, before settling down, walked 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 1 9 

around the town in which he expected to spend a month, 
to see what sort of a place it was. He discovered that the 
town was without an Episcopal Church. Suddenly it 
flashed over him what was behind this whole affair. He 
was not sent to Pennington as punishment; the Faculty 
aimed to convert him to Presbyterianism ! 

When the news of the Committee ^s drastic action reached 
the students there was a general feeHng of indignation. 
The Freshman class met and sent a committee to ask the 
Faculty to take no notice of the affair. The Sophomores 
sent in a petition, accompanied with such expressions and 
promises in asking for the reinstatement of their classmates, 
that the Faculty felt justified in accepting it and restoring 
them to good standing. One of the Seniors sat down at 
once and wrote to his father, the Bishop, that "the Faculty 
in stooping to notice such a small matter has in the eyes of 
the whole college compromised its dignity. The fellows 
imiversally condemned the action of the Faculty as unjust 
and as unworthy of the Faculty of one of the first colleges 
of the Land.'^ That very night the Faculty met and re- 
fused to ratify the action of their Committee on Discipline. 
The next day Frank was recalled by telegraph from Pen- 
nington. 

The letters informing the family of Frank's dismissal 
reached Denver and Erie and were immediately answered 
before the news of his reinstatement arrived. The close 
relationship between the boys and their loved ones at home, 
which was one of the great factors in the making of their 
characters, is revealed in these letters. The Bishop wrote 
that law must be obeyed otherwise society would drift into 
anarchy; the punishment seemed to him too severe, a 
reprimand was enough. The sun went out of the Mother's 
sky and she was afraid to open the newspaper lest in head- 



20 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

lines she would read, " Frank Spalding, suspended.'^ She 
resorted to prayer for comfort, and examined herself to see 
if she was not to blame. She could rejoice, however, that 
it was ^^fun and not sin." And yet ^^the whole idea of 
bothering the Freshmen because they are only what you 
were last year is mean and fit only for mischievous boys 
and not for young gentlemen.'' Uncle Will, with some 
knowledge of college ethics, wrote that "Faculty govern- 
ment is despotic any way and pitch into you fellows with 
scarcely a reason. The cunning dogs were boys once and 
I presume chuckle among themselves." Grandfather saw 
in the action of the Faculty evidence that "learned and 
talented men may lack common sense and forget that they 
had been boys." Aunt Fannie in spite of her reverence 
for Princeton divines resolved to take "the side of the boys 
no matter what happens." His grandmother rejoiced that 
Frank had told the story and wanted him to tell them 
"everything good or bad — if there is not time to write 
telegraph without a moment's hesitation." Uncle Rob, the 
comrade and counselor of his boyhood, knowing something 
of the problem of college discipline, wrote, "my sympathies 
are with you but my judgment leans towards the Faculty. 
But send the rag baby out here and we will hang it over the 
fence in honor." Aunt Kitty "would have arrested the 
Freshmen for throwing stones. Stones hurt and rag babies 
and water don't." 

The fact that Frank Spalding, of all fellows, had been 
caught by the Faculty, became the joke of the season among 
the students and at the expense of the college authorities. 
For in the secret midnight visitations by which the Sopho- 
mores sought to crush the spirit of the Freshmen he would 
take no part. Hazing, in which there is always a distinc- 
tively bullying element, as contrasted with the rivalries in 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 21 

the class rushes on the athletic field, was abhorrent to him ; 
and it was expressly condemned by his grandfather. In all 
that concerned the healthy rivalry for leadership between 
the classes he took a leading part. One of the ancient cus- 
toms of Princeton was for the Sophomores to paint green 
the celebrated cannon, which then stood in the center of 
the Campus, in mockery of the Freshmen's verdancy, and to 
defend the old gun from any Freshman who attempted to 
rub out the offensive color. "We got in two armies and 
made for each other. They (^88) had about 150 men and 
we had about 50. After we had tried to go through each 
other's lines several times we both tried to take possession 
of the cannon. Now we had just finished painting it green 
for the benefit of the Freshmen and when we got to it it 
was an ugly thing to handle. But we could not lose the 
honor of the class for such a small thing as * fresh' paint, 
so three or four of us hung on to the cannon. I got all 
covered with paint from head to foot. But we held the 
cannon ! " A member of '88 writes, " We Freshmen claimed 
the victory, but when lapse of time has subdued partizanship 
and allowed a more accurate historical judgment, it must be 
recorded that we never succeeded in dislodging Frank Spald- 
ing from the cannon. He had clasped it in his long wiry 
arms with a grip of steel and held to it through all the 
smother of the rush till the end." 

Frank Spalding attended Trinity Church, Princeton, all 
through his college course and took an active interest in its 
work. The rector of the parish. Rev. Alfred B. Baker, 
had the power of interesting young men in practical work. 
He had established missions in outlying places around 
Princeton which he supplied with lay readers, drawn from 
the St. Paul's Society of the College. Frank sang in the 
choir, taught in the Sunday School and read the service in 



22 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

one of the missions on Sunday afternoon or evening. As 
a teacher of a Sunday school class he was not a success. 
"I don't believe it pays for me to teach in Sunday School 
for I can't keep the boys in order. They know I'm not a 
senior and so they don't care a bit for me, for they know I 
don't know much. About a dozen of them threw snow 
balls at me and hit me too. What was I to do about it? 
I don't care a bit but the thing don't look right." The 
superintendent had given him a class of unruly boys, and 
with only the aid of a lesson paper, he was expected to 
teach the collect, the catechism and a text. It demanded 
too much of even a future bishop. Later he wrote, ^^I 
have stopped teaching in Sunday School because I had to, 
because the superintendent told me my services were not 
needed any longer. I am rather glad of it although I got 
along better than I did last year. 

The father urged his boys to write to him fully and espe- 
cially to ask any theological questions. The questions which 
Frank put to his father related to the Episcopal Church 
in its contention with the Presbyterian Church or to some of 
its practices and teachings. **It seems to me that the 
Presbyterians here have no idea what our Church is like. 
They think that in the Episcopal Church on Pahn Sunday 
everybody has palm branches in their hands. One of them 
who went to church with me wanted to know where the 
confessional was where the people went and confessed. 
Another thought the Bible we use is different fronj theirs. 
... A fellow said that our Church did not exist before 
the Church of Rome sent Augustine into England and that 
our Church was not an Apostolic Church but just a branch 
of the Church of Rome." Frank purchased a copy of 
Bishop Kip's '^ Double Witness," and with it and the in- 
formation which his father sent to him, he championed the 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 23 

i 
Episcopal Church in the stronghold of Presbyterianism. j 

^'I have gotten a Presbyterian to reading Eap and I hope it j 

will teach him something. For he got to arguing with me ■ 

the other night about the Presbyterian Church and he ] 

didn't know anything about our Church. So I argued with 
him and I guess got the best of him and then gave him Kip ■ 

to read." During Lent he decided to deny himself dessert 
at the boarding house where he paid a fixed price per week. | 

"You say that fasting in Lent when you can't give the ] 

amount saved to the Lord is only asceticism, but what if ! 

it is? I thought a little asceticism during forty days of I 

the year would do a person a little good. For the life of i 

me I can't see why you should estimate the amount of self- ] 

sacrifice in terms of dollars and cents. I am not going to 
eat any more dessert until I see I am wrong. If I deny 
myself, conquer my appetites, I don't see why I should 
not be doing right even though I can't give the money value | 

of what is thus saved." | 

Doubtless the Bishop thought that this inquisitive mind 
of Frank, ever seeking the reason for a thing, would, in 
college, experience searching intellectual doubt and perhaps 
skepticism. The professors of Princeton, however, took \ 

note of the skepticism of their age only to belittle and 
demolish it. "I read to-day a solid book I can tell you. j 

It was * Creation' by Dr. Guyot, the Professor of Geology | 

here. It is to show that all the modern scientific discoveries ■ 

do not contradict the first two chapters of the Bible. I like ^ 

the book very much and could understand all but one i 

place, where he talks about the Hght there was before the i 

sun was created. He says we must take the Bible as truth | 

and the discoveries will be a running commentary explain- ! 

ing it." Again he wrote to the Bishop, "There is a fellow ' 

here who has been reading Gibbon, Hume and especially 



24 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Froude, and has got to be a kind of skeptic, for he don't 
beUeve in the inspiration of the Bible or at least that is 
about the matter as near as I can make out, for he says that 
you can't prove the resurrection happened or even that 
Christ died, but he is not at all strong in his views and said 
that he would like to read on the other side. You see he 
has only read the wrong side. He never has read the Bible 
through he says. Now what is the best book to read about 
this? I would like to read something too on it so that I 
can answer this kind of statements." Frank Spalding was 
on the defensive in matters of religious faith during his 
college course, an attitude that is not conducive to critical 
examination of one's own position. 

The Princeton of the eighties was calculated to drill 
boys in acquiring knowledge rather than to open their 
minds and to inspire them to think. History was not 
taught from the point of view of development nor was evo- 
lution accepted in any department of science. In phi- 
losophy the great Germans were not known and the teaching 
consisted chiefly of logic and metaphysics. The basis of 
the required curriculum was Latin and Greek for four 
years. The boy with a quick memory and who was will- 
ing to learn his lesson with a mechanical accuracy was too 
often the boy who won academic honor. Frank Spalding's 
mind was analytical rather than acquisitive, and, though 
he worked hard, he did not attain high rank because of the 
methods of his day. Not only were the methods at fault, 
but there was then a great gulf between teachers and stu- 
dent. If a boy sought to establish a more human relation- 
ship between himself and his instructor, he was at once 
downed by his classmates as a " boot-licker " ; as one who 
sought by truckling to gain some unfair advantage over his 
fellow students. To one of Frank's sense of honor and love 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 2$ 

of fair play to be regarded as a boot-licker would be 
equivalent to having committed the unpardonable sin. 
His most characteristic virtue as a boy and college man 
thus stood in the way of obtaining that personal help from 
his teachers which his mental needs especially required, 
had they been able to give it. 

What Frank Spalding failed to get through the curric- 
ulum he received outside of it. The dominant educative 
factors in the Princeton of that day were the class, the Halls 
and the college papers. The Halls had reached the climax 
of their power before the Spaldings entered college and 
were beginning to wane, while the papers were in the earlier 
stage of their development. The rivalry between the Halls 
was intense. " Old Jimmy (President McCosh) met another 
fellow and me,*^ writes Frank in his Freshman year, "we 
asked him if he was a Whig. He said, *Yes, indeed I will 
fight CKo any day.*" The Halls were rival debating so- 
cieties which met weekly for discussion of subjects. Every 
member was required to take part in the program, being 
assigned statedly on the aflOrmative or negative of the 
questions, and allowed at other times to speak from the 
floor. Uncle Will advised his nephews to attend faithfully 
to Whig Hall, as in his experience "it was worth as much as 
the studies,*' and both Frank and Will followed his advice. 
"Last night," wrote Will, "Frank did himself proud, he 
made a rousing speech which was vociferously applauded." 

The activity and interest of these college debating so- 
cieties reached their climax in the Lynde Prize Debate 
held during Commencement week. Seniors quaUfied for 
the great event in preliminary debates. In his Junior 
year Frank entered the prize debate in Whig Hall and re- 
ceived honorable mention. On another occasion he memo- 
rized his speech and then in the midst of it forgot it. 



26 PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

*^If I am a minister/' he wrote home in describing his fail- 
ure, "I am going to learn to preach extempore." So when 
the Hsts were opened for the great intellectual trial of college 
life Frank entered. He did not think his chances were good 
but he knew the practice would be. The subject of the 
preliminary debate was, Resolved, that "The existence 
and power of the great corporations render government 
interference for the protection of the laboring classes neces- 
sary." He was assigned the opposition, which was the side 
he wanted, and he threw himself into its work of prepara- 
tion, reading ^books in political economy, law and history. 
In the contest he won easily and so became a contestant 
for the Lynde Prize. "I am very happy about getting on 
the Lynde Debate," he wrote his mother, "for I wanted 
something on Commencement for your sake and now I have 
got what lots of the fellows think is the biggest honor of 
all." Three prizes of money, one hundred and fifty, one 
hundred and twenty-five and one hundred dollars were 
offered. In the great debate, the academic distinction 
most coveted by really able men of the college, Frank 
Spalding was able with ease to carry off the first prize. 

Class life and class politics had their part in molding the 
mind of Frank Spalding. Two kinds of boys are attracted 
by class politics. There is the boy whose interests lie in 
petty intrigue and whose aim is personal aggrandizement ; 
and there is the boy who is the born leader and enters into 
class politics as he does into an athletic game, for the honor 
of the class and the college. He wrote home, "Don't 
worry about the jiunping as there is no danger of my hurt- 
ing myself or of getting a prize. But I go in only because 
the class of '87 must be represented." In a letter asking 
permission of his mother to play away from Princeton, 
again he writes, "We must beat Yale and it is a matter of 



FRANK SPALDING, PRINCETON '87 27 

college honor that every man help along towards that 
result to the best of his ability if he can do it without slight- 
ing more important duties, e.g. studies." Such was his 
fine motive in class poHtics. His first great honor from the 
viewpoint of the students, the treasurership of the Prince- 
ton College Baseball Association, came to him unsought and 
unexpected. The Ivy Club wanted it for one of its members 
and so put up two candidates. The other members of the 
class, resenting such methods, put up the name of Frank 
Spalding, who was not present and without consulting him, 
and elected him on the first ballot. "Being elected in the 
way I was," he writes, "everybody seems to think it is a 
pretty big honor, the finest ofl&ce in college, and I am 
tickled to death about it." After outUning the duties and 
speaking of the trips to Amherst, Brown, Harvard and Yale 
which he would take with the team, he says, " Of course I 
resign the Athletic Association as I do not think it is right 
to hold two offices." In his Senior year when he aimed for 
the Lynde Prize he reluctantly resigned this high office in 
order to give his whole attention to the work he had in 
hand. Such was the youth of twenty-one, a man who did 
one thing at a time, and did it with all his strength. 

The college papers were in the beginning of their career 
when Frank Spalding was in college. The Princetonian 
came out three times a week. It was edited by a board 
of students who in their Junior year won the position by 
the quality and quantity of their contributions to its col- 
umns. Of the Princetonian Board Frank was elected a 
member in December, 1885, and served until graduation. 
His early experience as a boy printer was of great help to 
him and at once he was assigned the job of making up the 
paper. Book reviews were his first editorial assignment, and 
we find him reviewing such books as Lotze's " Psychology." 



28 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

In his Senior year he wrote editorials. In these three extra 
curriculum spheres came just the opportunities which de- 
veloped his own peculiar gifts. He threw himself heart and 
soul into them, and many times he has said, in spite of his 
lament over the purely academic deficiencies of his college 
course and the injury that had been done him by the edu- 
cational methods then in vogue, that his four years in 
Princeton were the happiest years of his hfe. 

Frank Spalding's college career was marked by the same 
qualities, though now more matured, that characterized 
his boyhood. He did not enter one of the leading eastern 
colleges with the prestige of a big preparatory school be- 
hind him, that gives to some boys an initial advantage over 
their classmates. Neither did he have the glamour of wealth 
to secure to him an adventitious superiority. But the gift 
of leadership was his, a leadership that was based essentially 
on moral quaKties, the willingness to take hard knocks or 
back seats for the good of a cause, the downright honesty and 
high sense of honor which commands instant respect and 
confidence, the genial humor that estabhshes a relation- 
ship of good fellowship with all with whom he came into 
contact, and withal a virile Christianity which has the ideal- 
ism in it that appealed to a normal boy. Frank entered 
college clean, true and strong and left it the best known and 
best loved man in his class. College nicknames often sum 
up the judgment of a college upon a man with surprising 
accuracy; Spalding was known to his own class and to all 
the lower classes as "Old Pop,*' which was an abbreviation 
for Old Popularity. This title, honestly won and gladly 
given, was a greater honor than any merely academic 
distinction. 



Ill 

The Choice or a Profession 

Frank Spalding graduated from college without reach- 
ing a decision in regard to his future profession. Henry 
Ward Beecher once said that he entered the ministry 
because his father ordered him to. No such pressure 
was brought to bear upon Spalding. "We do not want to 
influence you at all," wrote the Bishop to his boy. "Make 
your own choice, consulting us of course when the time 
comes." In his Senior year, when Princeton allowed a 
choice of studies, the question of their future caUings was 
forced upon the students, and they elected courses with 
that in view. Spalding elected pedagogy, with the thought 
that he might become a teacher, and international and 
constitutional law with a view to entering the legal pro- 
fession. The Law, especially, appealed strongly to him, 
and he got the impression from his father's letters that the 
Bishop would Uke to have him become a lawyer. Chief 
Justice Fuller, a friend and classmate of the Bishop, was 
held up to Frank as an example, worthy of his imitation, 
of an able lawyer and an earnest Christian layman. 

It was the desire of Frank's mother that he foUow the 
profession of his father. And that strong and gracious influ- 
ence, which all through his early years had gently led him, 
now really determined his future career. To her letters in 
which she spoke of her hopes and prayers that he might see 
his way clear to entering the ministry, Frank replied, dur- 

29 



30 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ing his Senior year, "If I could feel that I should succeed as 
a minister and was really called I don't think I would hesi- 
tate. '^ Her answer to this letter, so illustrative of the 
tactful and wise way she had with her strong-minded son, 
was to the effect that his wilHngness to enter the ministry 
was a proof of a call, and as for success no one could be 
sure of that until he tried. 

There was in his mind, however, an objection to the 
ministry as a profession which the arguments of his mother 
were unable to remove. "I can't get over the feeling 
about being supported on other people's money. I have 
hated the idea since I put on the first pair of missionary- 
box pants. In the same way the whole Ufe of the clergy- 
man is not independent somehow. But perhaps I am all 
wrong. Still if I am really called to the ministry perhaps 
I ought not to feel that way." The great contribution 
which Frank Spalding has made to the Church is the demon- 
stration that an independent mind may enter the profes- 
sion of the ministry and be free — to seek the truth, reH- 
gious and social, and to proclaim it, provided he is willing 
to pay the price of freedom ! There are no conveniences 
for heroes on this earth in the Church or out of it. To 
men who want the life of free thought and free speech 
made easy, the Church with its theological and sociological 
conservatism seems a prison which puts the mind in fetters 
and the tongue in leash. Not so, however, is it in reaHty 
for those brave, truth-loving and truth-speaking souls 
who, like Frank Spalding, dare. As for the economic inde- 
pendence of the ministry any man is free who is willing 
to starve. Moreover, the minister who serves is a producer 
of genuine values, not a parasite. In one of the last speeches 
he made, however, Frank Spalding held that so long as the 
ministry depended upon those who live on interest, profits 



THE CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 3 1 

and rent, it cannot as a profession be independent, nor can 
it ever reach that increasing number of working men and 
women who beHeve that interest, profit and rent are socially 
wrong. 

The ministry appealed to Frank Spalding in its mission- 
ary aspects, where heroism and idealism offered clear and 
unmistakable utterance. "Bishop Boone preached to the 
S. Paul's Society,*' he writes to his mother. "He gave a 
very interesting account of the Church work in China. How 
would you like to have me go to China?" It was not the 
glamour of a distant heathen land, always alluring to chiv- 
alrous young men thinking of the ministry, but the reality 
and the urgency of the need that interested him. "Mis- 
sions are preached a great deal in college," he adds. "Dr. 
Patton gave us an address on the subject the other night. 
After the meeting some of the fellows asked him if we ought 
all to go to foreign missions. He said, 'It's a question of 
giving bread to the starving millions or giving tonic to rich 
people, and I say give the bread to the starving.' We 
discussed the matter in the St. Paul's Society and I held 
that home work was every bit as important as foreign work, 
but I was almost alone in the opinion." When he finally 
decided on his life profession, his choice was not to be a 
clergyman or even a minister; it was to be a western 
missionary. 

Princeton, Jan. lo, 1887. 

My dear Mother : I don't know what Will could have told 
you in his letter about me to make you think I have decided to 
go to the seminary next year for I haven't decided what to do. 
But I do think this that I ought not to go there next year but ought 
to teach or do something to earn enough money to put myself 
through the rest of my education, whether I go to a theological 
or a law school or a medical school, for it seems to me that when 



32 PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

a person gets to be twenty-two years old it is about time for him 
to look out for himself. I suppose you and papa would be 
perfectly willing to pay my way through the seminary or wher- 
ever I go but I don't like the idea at all. One thing sure, I agree 
with you about going into business, after spending about $2000 
and four years of time on an education I can't see how any body 
can go to work at what a boy could do who hasn't even graduated 
at the Public School. 

I think I will write to Charles Kienzlee about the Seminary. 
If I go there I don't want to get into any swell set. I am going 
to be a western missionary. Charlie told me last summer how 
the rich crowd snubbed the poor students. I would enjoy being 
snubbed by a fellow after the t5^e of . . . I suppose I can get 
some kind of missionary work to do and so pay expenses. But I 
still think I might get a place to teach for a year. 

The opportunity to carry out the hope, expressed in the 
last sentence of this letter, came with an offer from the 
Princeton Preparatory School. For the next year at least 
he decided to teach. In September after his graduation 
from Princeton Spalding became a "house-master" in 
the Princeton Preparatory School. During that year he 
taught Caesar, geography, elocution, reading, writing, 
arithmetic, history and English grammar. It was a val- 
uable experience which he never regretted, making it pos- 
sible for him to brush up all his studies, to take post-grad- 
uate work in college, and especially to come to conclusions 
with himself as to his life work. The experience of teaching 
helped him, as it did Phillips Brooks, to see that the profes- 
sion of the teacher was not for him. "I am beginning to 
think," he wrote his brother Will who had entered the Gen- 
eral Seminary after graduation, "I should be a minister 
though I haven't got it settled." And to his father he 
wrote, "I am trying to think that I would be better satisfied 
in going to the seminary than I would be studying law. 



THE CHOICE OF A PROFESSION 33 

But I do hate the idea of studying Hebrew roots. In- 
deed I am afraid that I can not settle down to study Hebrew 
as I ought to do, if I went to the seminary." 

In the Spring of the year Frank Spalding finally reached 
the conclusion to which he had been tending since the 
beginning of his Senior year : he would enter the ministry. 
The ground upon which he justified his decision was service. 
It was not a question of serving Christ but of serving men. 
Christ he had resolved to serve at his Confirmation, and 
Him he would serve whether he entered the law, medicine, 
teaching or the so-called ministry. The real question was 
in regard to the walk of life where a man could make the 
best investment of his life. Frank Spalding's call was his 
conviction, intellectual more than emotional, that a man 
could do most good as a clergyman. It was not the saving 
of souls or the celebrating of sacraments, but the opportunity 
which the ministry offered to a Christian man of doing good, 
strengthening the moral life and furthering the cause of 
righteousness in the world, that he believed called him. 
" If I have any talents which will help me in the Law they 
will help me also as a preacher of Christ. I can do more 
good as a clergyman than as a lawyer." 

At the close of the school year Frank sailed for England 
with the Bishop who went to attend the Lambeth Confer- 
ence, and spent the summer before entering the seminary 
in travel on the continent. In the entertainment, custom- 
ary on shipboard, he took part, reciting several pieces, to 
the great delight of the audience. **Your son," remarked 
a teacher of elocution from Boston to the Bishop, "has a 
fine voice and much natural ability as an elocutionist. If 
I could give him instruction for a year or two he would 
certainly make his mark in that direction." Bishop Spald- 
ing gravely and courteously thanked the lady for her kindly 



34 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 1 

i 

words, though the shadow of a smile lurked around the i 

corners of his mouth. The countenance of the younger \ 

Spalding bore a "Praise — from Sir Roderick — is praise j 

indeed" expression, and he said to a fellow passenger, \ 

"How is that for the Boston school ma'am? I have been \ 
instructor of elocution at Princeton/' 



IV I 

Theological Student I 

When Frank Spalding entered the General Theological 
Seminary in New York, in the fall of 1888, he found himself 
in a new and strange atmosphere. The Seminary was the 
official institution of the general Church, as distinct from 

the diocesan or sectional seminaries, for the education of ; 

young men for the ministry, and he went to it a zealous \ 
member of his Church and the son of a bishop. His father 

called himseK a High Churchman, and Frank's own church- i 

manship was like his father's, and that which he found in i 

Elip's " Double Witness ", which had been his ever-ready ' 

help in controversies with his Presbyterian classmates at j 

Princeton. But he found in the Seminary, estabHshed in j 

the leading chairs, a t)^e of churchmanship such as he j 

had never encountered. The Seminary, unknown to the i 

bishops and the people as a whole, had gone over to the j 
position of the Oxford Movement. 

In a letter to his father Frank wrote, "When I decided j 

to come here I did it because I thought I could do more , 

good as a clergyman than as a lawyer, and that if I had any j 

talents which would have helped me in law they would ] 

help me also as a preacher of Christ. But I am instructed i 

that the preaching and active part of the work is a minor ; 

matter and that the priestly part of the work, which it \ 
seems to me a half-witted ignoramus can do, is the great 
and almost only work of importance. Really, I can't 

35 ; 

3 



36 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

go this real presence that Dr. Oliver teaches." He had 
gone to the Seminary thinking it was a school of the prophets, 
a laboratory of the workers, and he found it to be a drill- 
ground of the priests. 

Frank Spalding was not a man, however, to make snap 
judgments and refuse to revise them. He resolved to exam- 
ine the position of those who delighted to call themselves 
^Xatholics.'' ^^I suppose," he writes his father, "that I 
ought not to think about questions imtil they come up in 
the course and I am instructed in them, but you see I am 
driven into it because when a fellow makes a statement 
which I think wrong and draws conclusions that seem 
illogical, I Hke to jump into them." In his class were 
several extreme "Catholics" who were fond of going into 
his room and arguing with him. Some of them had come 
into the Episcopal Church fr6m other churches and it 
amused him when these men, who had been Churchmen 
only a year, proceeded to call him a "Low Churchman, or a 
Methodist." Accepting the teaching of the Seminary on 
the Holy Communion, these men concerned themselves 
with the corollaries of that proposition, vestments, lights, 
incense. "We have one fellow especially 'Catholic' who 
thinks it is absolutely sinful to celebrate the Communion 
without full vestments. I asked him what he would do if 
he couldn't get them. He said he never would go without 
carrying his Cope, etc. I asked him what he would do if 
he was in Colorado and had to go on snow shoes. He 
insisted that it would be necessary to take his vestments." 

The Oxford Movement in aiming to present the historical 
continuity of the Church of England had nothing but con- 
tempt for Protestantism in all its forms. It was an atti- 
tude which, as advocated by the students at least, seemed 
to Spalding an evidence of fanaticism. "Last Friday some 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 37 

extreme ^ Catholics/ although it seems to me they are any- 
thing but liberal and truly catholic, got to arguing in refer- 
ence to the sects. Some of them thought all the sects were 
to be damned and the majority of these advanced individuals 
think that as Christian ministers, that is when they are 
ordained, they will not recognize the ministers of the sects 
in any way but act just as if this Church was the only one 
in town and that all outside were as heathen. I think they 
will have their eyes opened when they get out of the Semi- 
nary.^' 

When such subjects came up in course, Spalding, who had 
kept his mind open, straightway wanted to know the reason 
for the positions taken by the professors. Invariably he 
received the answer, "It is the teaching of the Catholic 
Church. *' Professor Richey advocated the use of incense 
on that ground. Bowing to the altar, crossing oneself and 
other rituahstic practices which Spalding questioned were 
similarly justified. When pushed for a definition of ortho- 
doxy, Professor Oliver answered, "The teaching of the 
Catholic Church." "Now I can't see why Dr. Westcott 
(whose Commentary on The Epistle to the Hebrews had just 
appeared and was declared unorthodox by Dr. OHver) is 
not as likely to have stated the ^CathoUc Faith' as Dr. 
OHver and a little more likely too, for of course he is a far 
greater scholar." The talk of this and that being the 
Catholic view was inexpKcable to him. "The thing that 
puzzles me more than anything else is how you are to find 
what the Church teaches. Isn't the right answer in the 
Prayer Book?" To these letters his father replied that 
Frank would do well to study Andrews, Bull, Harold Browne, 
Pearson and the great body of Anglican divines. "The 
habit of those (the Ritualists) is to refer to modern Roman 
usage as authority. I insist on their giving authorities 



38 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING j 

that are not Romish." Little weight, however, would such i 

writers have with men who held that "Bloody Mary was | 
the special instrument raised up by God to save the Church 
from such corrupters as Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, and 

that pity for those men whom she burned is wasted as they ' 
died for a cause not worth dying for. Finally, unable to 
answer his questions, they sought the reason for what they 

called his bias and intellectual pride, in his previous reli- ' 

gious training. i 

To His Mother 

General Theological Sem. ' 

Mch. 7, 1891. i 

I have the best joke on you imaginable! I will have to tell | 

you how it all came about. Possibly you will say that it is my ! 

fault and that I have not been keeping the Fifth Commandment, \ 
but you will have to forgive me for the fun of the joke. I was 
talking after class with Prof. Walpole the other day together 

with a man who has come into the Church from the Methodists. j 

Walpole was telling Shomaker about the necessity of surrendering j 

one's belief and will to the belief of the whole Catholic Church. j 

i 

He said that everyone had a bias which would lead him to reject 

all which was contrary to his way of thinking; that this bias 1 

was generally the result of bringing up. I told him that I didn't < 
think that that had been so in my case, because I certainly had 

been brought up in a church family and always taught the church : 

doctrine but that now I had the reputation of being rather a i 

poor Churchman and that anything rationalistic in its tone ap- ; 

pealed to me more strongly than anything merely submissive to ' 

authority. He said that I was mistaken; that he understood \ 

that my home training had not been churchly and that my life j 

at Princeton had been such that Presbyterian ideas had influ- j 
enced me. I said that as to Princeton I had had nothing to do 

with the religion of Princeton except in Mr. Baker's church and 1 

had not given it all a thought. We had just before been talking ; 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 39 

about the Bible and I asked Mm where I got my bias towards 
* modern ideas' which he had said I had. I said I surely did 
not get that at home as all my teaching had been conserva- 
tive; and also at Bible class. He said ''who was your Bible 
class teacher." I said 'my mother', thinking of course I had 
him, when he said, "Well that's where you get your rational- 
istic ideas for I understand that your mother is not a good church 
woman; that she was once a Presbyterian and has never lost 
that phase of Hfe." I had to laugh heartily. I told him kindly 
to inform his informant when he next saw him or her that he or 
she was very much mistaken in saying that he or she knew you 
very well, that he or she didn't know you at all — probably had 
never seen you and that I told him and her so and could prove 
it. Now don't you think that is good. Simply because I ask 
questions when I don't understand and can't see anything in 
ritual and try to get reasons for things which may be proved, I 
have the terrible name of Protestant applied to me and my in- 
terested friends have discovered that my mother, being a very 
"poor churchman", still a Presbyterian at heart, is to blame for 
giving me a nature which Professor Walpole says is proud and 
far from that of the little child of Scripture and moulded much by 
the Devil. I think it is about the best joke I ever heard. 

The Seminary at that time made no serious demands upon 
the students ; its methods were slipshod and its standards 
were low. "I have finished my sermon and handed it in 
and I am not at all satisfied with it. But there is very 
little stimulus to work when you know the professor will 
hardly look at it and will say that it is very good no matter 
what it is." Again he remarks that the examinations do 
not amount to anything. "The Profs, let every one through 
for the honor of the institution." There were indeed some 
members of the Faculty who were incompetent to teach 
untrained boys, much less graduates of leading colleges. 
"Dr. is so poor that we had a student meeting about it. 



40 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

One man stated that one of the trustees told him Dr. 

was sure to be re-elected unless the students did something. 
So a committee was appointed, one from each class to confer 
with the trustees on the subject and tell them how incom- 
petent Dr. is and so prevent his election. I am on 

the committee from our class.'' There was one man, in a 
position of prominence, who not only did not win Frank 
Spalding's respect but earned his righteous contempt. 
"It does not give a student a very high opinion of a man's 
ability when he can take a Maclear's Sunday School Bible 
History into class and listen to the Professor lecture it 
almost word for word, making now and then a sHght change 
much as the boys at the Prep, did last year when they copied 
compositions." 

Outside the classroom Frank Spalding found two mem- 
bers of the Faculty interesting and helpful. "I had a fine 
talk and walk with Professor Walpole this afternoon. We 
talked about the inspiration of the Bible and he helped my 
ideas along very much." Again he writes, "I went over 
to see Dr. Richey the other evening and had a long talk 
with him on the Incarnation and other theological subjects 
and he put hard points clearly and helped me a great deal. 
Richey is worth all the other professors together but he 
should be professor of Dogmatics, I think." 

There were other seminaries in the Episcopal Church 
where the alert and inquiring mind of Frank Spalding 
would have found life and inspiration, but he did not know 
them until the third year of his course. Of the school 
which doubtless would have most aided his intellect he was 
not only ignorant but suspicious. One of the candidates of 
Colorado, a senior at Trinity College, hearing that the 
General Seminary was a "theological boys school" made a 
request of his bishop to go to the Episcopal Theological 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 41 

School at Cambridge, and the bishop refused in curt terms. 
Frank wrote to his father that that man deserved diJfferent 
treatment and should rather have been shown that the 
bis hopknew "Cambridge Theology is bad and that from 
your experience with Cambridge-trained men, that semi- 
nary is not a success." In his Senior year he visited Cam- 
bridge as a delegate of the General to the Missionary Con- 
vention of seminaries and had an opportunity of seeing the 
School from within. "The fellowship between faculty and 
students at Cambridge is wonderful. Silver took me into 
Professor Kellner's room and I talked to him about Higher 
Criticism for two hours. He thinks Moses wrote no more 
than the Decalogue, and that Leviticus is the latest book of 
the Five and that the existence of the Tabernacle is very 
doubtful. He also thinks that Assyrian inscriptions are 
more reliable for determining chronology than the Bible 
with which they often disagree; and yet he spoke with 
suspicion of the 'RationaUsts.' We hear absolutely noth- 
ing of this here and when we ask questions the answer shows 
that the professor is as poorly read on the subject as we are. 
I don't wonder Cambridge students are fond of their semi- 
nary." In the missionary conventions he also met students 
of the Episcopal Seminary at Alexandria and was impressed 
by their enthusiasm for missions and their personal reli- 
gion. "Those Alexandria fellows have the true ring," he 
wrote home. "We hear very little about personal religion 
here as though that was to be taken for granted." 

What inspiration the Seminary failed to give to him the 
churches of the great city in a measure supplied. Every 
Sunday was a feast day, "the pleasantest day of the week," 
he wrote, and Lent was a spiritual banquet, for then the 
greatest preachers came to New York. At first Dr. Morgan 
Dix, in whose parish Spalding had a Sunday School class on 



42 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Sunday morning, appealed to him as a great preacher, "the 
equal of any we heard in England last summer." But Dr. 
Dix's view of life, when he came to know it, did not appeal 
to him as true. "He holds that our life here amounts to 
very little, only as a shadow, but the real life is in the inter- 
mediate state where true progress to holiness is made.'' 
Canon Kjiox Little struck him as very spiritual and very 
pious, "but I don't like that kind of speech so much as the 
kind of Bishop Gilbert, full of life and activity." He also 
heard Phillips Brooks preach his famous sermon, "The 
Light of the World," which he described as magnificent,- and, 
in the historic Lenten week when the great preacher packed 
Trinity Church to the curb, Frank Spalding was one of the 
multitude who heard him gladly. "I never knew what elo- 
quence was before I heard him describe Christian manhood." 
He visited with "Catholic" friends the Church of St. Mary 
the Virgin and "saw Father Brown in all the pomp of the 
office." Some of the things done there and their meaning 
seemed to him "ridiculous and absurd." One Sunday 
morning he entered St. George's Church. The great 
throng that filled every seat and even the steps of the 
chancel, the congregational music, the hearty participa- 
tion in the responses on the part of all, and especially the 
preacher, Dr. Rainsford, with his message of life and ac- 
tivity and his sense of the presence of God, held the young 
disciple of Christ spellbound. That day he wrote to his 
mother, "St. George's is the church for me." 

It was in the city churches as a laboratory rather than in 
the Seminary that Frank Spalding acquired his style of 
preaching and method of working. "I used to think that 
the style of Father Maturin & Co. with its modulations and 
gestures was a very fine way and effective, but since I heard 
Sam Jones I think just the natural method is ten times the 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 43 

best." The short sentence and the Anglo-Saxon words 
seemed to him the way to transmit thought. ^'I heard a 
man tell children how ^infectious' sin was. I wonder why 
men don't use simple words in talking to children." When 
he became the rector of a parish he conducted a Children's 
Service and was most successful in interesting them. It 
was also in the city that he learned the methods and ideals 
of that useful modern form of service, the parish house. 
Dr. Rainsford, whom the Dean and Faculty would not 
invite to the General Seminary, held a reception each year 
for the students of both the General and Union. Frank 
Spalding, with those students who were not ^' Anglo- Catho- 
lics," who refused to recognize the sectarians, attended. 
It was always a memorable occasion, with Dr. Rainsford 
at his best, witty, eloquent, religious, heretical. Some 
students he shocked, but others he electrified. Its chief 
value, however, was in the opportunity it offered to future 
rectors and pastors to know the most efficient parish organ- 
ization in the American Church. 

Frank Spalding found, to his delight, that the student 
body at the Seminary was not divided into rich and poor, 
as had been reported to him. While varying in previous 
education and in natural ability they were young men of 
Christian character and earnest purpose. Some of his 
friendships which closed only with his death were formed in 
the Seminary. In his intercourse with his fellow students, 
and especially with these friends, he was the big boy still, 
brimming over with physical strength and energy, intel- 
lectually alive, spiritually devout. Ever loving to argue, 
and, as he says, " quick to jump into fellows when he thought 
them wrong," he was never unkind or acrimonious. No 
man who had such positive convictions had more genuine 
intellectual humility. Therefore the "Catholics" loved to 



44 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

drop into his room and try out their opinions on him. 
"Your elder son/' wrote home his brother Will who for two 
years was Frank's room-mate at the Seminary, " has been 
familiarly dubbed by his affectionate classmates as *The 
Kicker' on account of his extremely argumentative turn 
of mind. He has floored all the ritualists in the vicinity 
with knock-down arguments, and his eye flashes proudly 
as he looks around for more to conquer." Many students 
differed from him in matters of opinion and belief, and some 
considered him a hopeless heretic, but all thoroughly re- 
spected him and even cordially admired him. His aptitude 
for leadership and his personal popularity were attested by 
the fact that he was elected president of his class in the 
Senior year and held that position as an alumnus until the 
day of his death. 

Many of the students helped pay their way through the 
Seminary by taking charge of missions in New Jersey or 
Long Island, and Frank Spalding was in great demand by 
them for entertainments for the benefit of their missions. 
In his year at the Princeton Preparatory School he bought 
a book on conjurer's tricks, to interest the boys, and be- 
came an adept at the art of the prestidigitation. Here is 
the heading of the handbill of one of those entertainments 
which all participants united in writing. 

GRAND ENTERTAINMENT 

Mirth Mystery Mimicry 

Merriment Music Magic 

An unparalleled amount of amusement crowded into one 
entertainment. 

Spalding was down for "Thirty Minutes of Mystery. 
The Occult Mysteries of the Sleight of Hand Practices of 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 45 

India revealed by the Unknown Prestidigitator." At other 
times he would get lantern-slide pictures of Colorado, and 
lecture for some mission on ^^The Switzerland of America," 
or sing with the Seminary Glee Club in a benefit concert. 

Such little trips down to Patchogue or over to Hillsdale 
bound the friends together closer even than Seminary ties 
and usually found three of them occupying the same bed 
for that night in some parishioner's house or country hotel. 

To His Mother 

April 27, 1891. 

I could not get time yesterday to write to you but am up early 
this morning and hope I can teU you all the news. First the 
great excitement of the moment. Two of the Juniors have 
joined the Church of Rome. They got out bag and baggage on 
Friday evening. The papers are full of it and the two men, 
among the poorest intellectually in their class, are famous for 
once. Up to Christmas one was a very low Churchman object- 
ing to even the ritual of our Chapel service and the other has only 
been in the Church about ten months, having come from the 
Dutch Reformed Church. They sneaked out before any body 
was awake at 5 a.m. on Friday. I suppose we shaU listen to a 
speech from the Dean on the subject at Chapel this morning. 

I received a letter on Friday from a young lady. As it is I 
believe the first epistle I ever received from any young lady out 
of the limits of consanguinity, it is quite an event. She informed 
me that she was getting up a walking party. It was to include 
five young women and five men. Its object was to be aesthetic 
and healthful and I was invited to be one of the five men. The 
party was to take a walk every Saturday in May. I replied 
that I was very grateful for the invitation. I had no doubt 
that I needed education both physical and intellectual but that 
the remedy proposed was so unusual and violent that I couldn't 
risk the experiment. This young lady is taking lessons in water 
color painting. As Lizzie knows, I am well up on that subject. 



46 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

and when I met her I discussed with the young lady the question 
of truth in art, the school of broad painting, &c. &c. and you 
see made quite an impression. 

Professor Walpole says that he thinks the best way about 
visiting is to fix a limit for the number of calls to be made and 
don't ever go under it. He used, I think, to make twenty calls 
a week and not be satisfied with less. Would you think that was 
big enough? 

Last Thursday evening Mr. Moir, Moires brother, who lives 
at Hackensack, invited me out to dinner with Mitchell, Marfield 
Knight and Moir. He called it a theological dinner. We had an 
elegant dinner and a real good time. He believes in Faith Cure. 
He had nervous prostration and the doctor could not help him. A 
woman of the Mind Cure persuasion cured him completely. 

The time is very short now. This is our last week of recita- 
tion. Then a week of vacation in which to study up for ex- 
amination. Then a week of examination. I tell you the time 
can't go too fast. 

Spalding entered the Seminary to become a missionary in 
the West, and all through his three years in New York he 
kept in mind the West and its need of men. He became the 
first president of the *^ Western Missionary Club" which 
only those students could join who expected to go west 
of the Mississippi River. Each member promised to say 
a prayer for the West each day and use all legitimate means 
in his power to get men to spend at least three years in the 
mission field of the West. He also took a vital interest in 
the missionary society of the seminaries, going as a dele- 
gate of the General to the convention at Cambridge and 
serving as president of the convention at Philadelphia. 
From this last convention, where Bishop Graves gave the 
General Seminary a "terrific rating for sending nobody in 
years," Spalding returned to the General determined to do 
his part in arousing the missionary spirit of his seminary. 



THEOLOGICAL STUDENT 47 

He picked out the best men in the lower classes and indi- 
vidually put the call of the West before them. Partly as 
a result of his influence six men of his own class went to 
Colorado with him, several others to other western dioceses 
and many younger men followed in the next two years. 

When the Senior year drew to a close Frank Spalding 
wrote to his father, "This year hasn't meant much to me 
intellectually but I don't think it is my fault." Nor was it 
his fault. It was the fault of the Seminary and of the 
Church which maintained such a school. Young men who 
were ready to give themselves to the service of Christ and 
His Church had a right to turn to a seminary, occupying 
the position of the General, with the expectation and confi- 
dence that they would be fitted to serve their Lord with 
intelligence and efficiency in their day and generation. 
The Seminary failed Frank Spalding and many other ear- 
nest spirits. Its teachers had no real knowledge of modern 
religious problems and summarily dismissed modern views 
which they came to know at second hand as "dangerous" 
or "unsound." Spalding and men like him went to the 
work of the Church prepared, if at all, in spite of the Semi- 
nary, not because of it. Those who were not stultified 
by the wearisome commonplaces of professors were compelled 
to work out their intellectual salvation alone, meeting prob- 
lems in isolation which should have been met by young 
men seeking truth in fellowship. The result was a spiritual 
Gethsemane for many of those men in their ministry. 
The wonder is that Frank Spalding came through his Geth- 
semane so triumphantly. It is no surprise that some of his 
friends failed and in time were found no longer in the ranks 
of the ministry. "I'm off Sunday," he wrote a few days 
before graduation. "Banished from Rome. What's ban- 
ished but set free from things I loathe." 



Jarvis Hall Days 

Seven graduates of the class of 1891 of the General Theo- 
logical Seminary went to Colorado as missionaries. Frank 
Spalding had spent his previous vacation in Colorado, where 
he took charge of the mission at Colorado City and won 
the hearts of men. In the assignment of fields, Spalding, 
though he had asked to be sent to a mining camp, the hard- 
est work in the jurisdiction, was sent to a new and grow- 
ing section of Denver, where a weak parish had already 
been organized. On June 3, 1891, he was ordained to the 
diaconate by his father, the Bishop of Colorado, in St. 
John's Cathedral, Denver, and on the following Sunday 
began his ministry, as rector of All Saints', North Denver. 

An advertisement in the daily press, announcing the new 
rector's first sermon, concluded with this remark : 

"The Vestry sincerely hope that the members of the 
congregation will make a united effort to attend the ser- 
vice of the day, and a full attendance of the choir is earnestly 
requested." The newspaper announced the next day 
that "Rev. Frank S. Spalding demonstrated to the entire 
satisfaction of the large congregation that he is (contrary 
to the general rule) the able son of an able father. He 
has directly acquired a reputation as a pulpit orator." The 
subject of Spalding's first sermon was, "Christians as co- 
workers with Christ." The manner of the delivery was as 
simple and real as the theme itself. He used neither ora- 

48 



JARVIS HALL DAYS 49 

torical tones nor gestures, was natural and straightforward ; 
though speaking without notes, he had carefully worked out 
his argument and demanded of his hearers their close at- 
tention. For several years Spalding had observed care- 
fully the ways and methods of many preachers, and he 
appUed to this first sermon a method which he had derived 
from such observation and to which he adhered throughout 
his career. Every word of his sermon had been written 
out, but no attempt was made to commit to memory. The 
writing cleared his mind and made him sure of his vocab- 
ulary, thus giving him a certain confidence which in turn 
inspired confidence in his hearers. 

All Saints' was situated among people of small means in 
what was then a suburb of Denver. The new rector put 
life into its organization and developed new activities. He 
built up the Simday School, organized a Bible Class of young 
people, and formed a branch of the Woman's Auxiliary to 
the Board of Missions. Within a few months he was in 
demand for special addresses before the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association and a variety of patriotic and fraternal 
orders. Like many another yoimg preacher he foimd 
himself, with all the demands upon his time both from 
within and without his parish, hard pressed for something 
to say. "Send me," he writes to his sister at Vassar, "any 
good stories you hear or poems, I need aU the ideas I can 
get, because they are scarce." 

In the West, during the early nineties, foot-ball as played 
in the East was imknown. Graduates of Eastern univer- 
sities on their return to the West, coached the teams of 
local colleges in the new game, and frequently organized 
teams of ex-college players to play the local colleges. Those 
games were the athletic events of the year and brought out 
immense crowds. Frank Spalding was the star full-back 



50 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

of the Denver Athletic Club. He questioned at first the 
propriety of a clergyman taking part in the sports of young 
men, but he soon found that it met with the hearty approval 
of both his family and his parish. He also found that he 
got to know more young men by means of foot-ball than by 
parish work and pubUc speaking. Moreover, he craved 
the companionship of men, since church work threw him so 
much with women. The foot-ball season reached its cli- 
max in the Thanksgiving Day game between the Athletic 
Club and the School of Mines. Each team had its en- 
thusiastic rooters who went to the field in decorated tally- 
hoes and coaches and crowded the side lines five feet deep. 
In the second half of the great game, with the score in 
favor of Golden and with but five minutes to play, Frank 
Spalding was signalled to try for a goal from the field. He 
caught the ball on Golden's forty-yard line, and sent it, 
straight and clear, between the goal posts, making the score 
5 to 4 in favor of the Athletic Club. It was such a finish 
as Hfts a multitude as one man out of their seats whether 
friend or foe. The crowd broke on to the gridiron, and 
Hf ting the hero upon their shoulders carried him in triumph 
off the field. From that day Frank Spalding was the best 
known and most admired young man in Denver. It was a 
manly type of Christianity that he exemplified, b)^ deed 
and by word, before the men and boys of the Queen City 
of the Plains. 

Jarvis Hall, at Montclair, Colorado, the diocesan school 
for boys, had been from its inception a heavy financial burden 
on the shoulders of the bishop and the Cathedral Chapter, 
but the financial depression of 1892 made it doubly so. 
The bishop turned to Frank to help him bear this load, and 
Frank, eager to help his father, accepted the position of 
head-master. On June i, 1892, Spalding was advanced to 



JAR VIS HALL DAYS 51 

the priesthood and immediately took up his new work. 
With characteristic generosity and self sacrifice he straight- 
way surrendered half of his salary as head-master in order 
to tide over the finances of the school. All through his Ufe 
Frank Spalding was assuming financial burdens as an un- 
welcome inheritance from others, and carried the load not 
merely by raising money but by sacrificing his own modest 
salaries. He never told others what he gave, but the fact 
that he gave, in proportion to his income, more generously 
than any contributor, enabled him to put his case unhesi- 
tatingly and convincingly. He was utterly indifferent to 
his personal interests when the cause which he had at heart 
was involved. 

The athletic prowess of the new head-master gave him a 
great advantage with the boys of Jarvis Hall. He entered 
into its games and sports with more genuine enthusiasm 
than the boys themselves. In the hours of recreation, so 
far from feeling any restraint in his presence, the boys were 
delighted to have him among them. The juvenile photog- 
raphers, stamp collectors and amateur conjurers foimd in 
him a congenial spirit. To delicate and ailing boys, espe- 
cially, he was unusually tender. When a student at 
Princeton, he shared his room with Ned, his younger brother, 
who died of a weak heart the following year, and Frank 
knew what it meant for a boy of eager spirit but weak 
body to be unable to take part in vigorous sports. Be- 
cause of his muscular frame and abounding energy, he im- 
pressed some men as intolerant of weakness and lacking in 
sympathy for the incompetent, but, inwardly, he had an 
almost feminine gentleness. To the little boys, particularly, 
he was the big brother who loved them all and was glad to 
play any sort of game. Out of school hours there was none 
of the awe which is supposed to hedge about a head-master. 



52 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

His assistant masters sometimes complained that they had 
to dislodge a half dozen urchins who were clambering over 
him before they could reach the head-master himself. 

What his administration of Jarvis Hall lacked was rigor 
in its discipHne. "Mr. Clarke says," Spalding wrote to 
his sister, "I am just hke Proxenus in Zenophon, a good 
leader for good men but imposed on by the bad, and I 
guess that he is about right. I can't seem to be stern enough 
and so the discipline is not as strict as it really ought to be, 
and I don't seem to be able to make it so." Spalding 
sought to govern the school by moral suasion and personal 
influence and without the usual system of punishments 
found in mihtary schools. He wanted the boys to act from 
higher motives of behavior than fear of punishment. He 
was ever ready to forgive even the worst offenders over and 
over again if he thought they showed genuine regret and 
repentance. There were some who responded to his trust 
in them and became his lasting friends. 

Such being the character of his administration of Jarvis 
Hall, it was the irony of fate that Spalding, of all men, 
should have become the subject of a pohce-court trial and 
articles in a sensation-mongering newspaper. On a single 
occasion he was reluctantly driven to resort to corporal 
punishment in the case of a boy who resisted every other 
method of appeal. The boy went to the newspaper, and 
the paper, without attempting to verify his story, wrote 
up Jarvis Hall as a second Dotheboys Hall and its principal 
as a kind of Squeers. "It was too good a story not to use," 
was the laughing explanation of the irresponsible reporter. 
The police authorities, ever ready to strain out a gnat and 
swallow a camel, at once posed as the guardians of outraged 
innocence and arrested Frank Spalding and all the masters. 
The aggrieved youth fell into the hands of a shyster lawyer 



JARVIS HALL DAYS 53 

who straightway brought suit for damages. Spalding's 
motive was so obviously sincere and the case so explainable 
that he at once went to the boy's lawyer to give the facts. 
But the lawyer took his call as an opportunity to insult 
him grossly, hoping by so doing to exasperate him into an 
attack upon himself, so as to be able to show in court that 
the head-master was a brutal fellow. In later hfe Spald- 
ing confessed to a friend that he had never been nearer 
losing control of himself than at that moment. "I could 
have thrown the fellow," he said, "right through the oflSce 
window." Fortunately for the lawyer the temper within 
those six feet of brawn was subject to a moral power equally 
well developed. The people of Denver, who knew both 
Spalding and the ways of their sensational press, treated 
the story as ludicrous. When the case came to trial a ver- 
dict of acquittal was speedily given. For Spalding, who 
had devoted life and money to the welfare and happiness of 
the boys and the upbuilding of the school, this experience, 
like the effect of the somewhat similar experience of PhiUips 
Brooks, was harsh and discouraging. "I don't know what 
to do about Jarvis Hall," he wrote. "It has been proved 
that it can be run at a fair profit and pay a rent of $1400 
a year, but I am beginning to fear that I am not a success 
as a school teacher." 

In his influence over boys, Spalding, the school-master, 
was an unquestioned success. His forceful and earnest 
manner of speech, his pure Anglo-Saxon words, thrown out 
in short, intelHgible sentences, and his vivid illustrations, 
gripped the attention of his young hearers whether in in- 
formal address in the school or sermon in the parish church 
near by, where he preached on Sundays. Without affec- 
tation and the sHghtest effort after rhetorical effect, he 
impressed all by his evident sincerity and the reahty of his 



54 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

message. "I have to send a boy home to-morrow," he 
wrote, "and I am sorry. But we can have no Hars around 
here." It was an invigorating atmosphere of truth- tell- 
ing, right action and generous treatment of others, gener- 
ated by his own pure and ardent soul, that pervaded the 
school. His appeals were addressed to the higher nature 
of the boys, to their manliness, self-respect and conscience. 
Many old Jar vis Hall boys, scattered now far and wide, 
remember vividly the tall, spare figure, the flashing eye, 
the impetuous flow of speech of Frank Spalding, and, 
though the recollection of what he said has faded from their 
minds, the moral fiber of what he was has entered into their 
souls. 

The presidential election of 1896 was fought out on the 
issue of bimetallism, Spalding enthusiastically advocated 
the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen of silver to 
one of gold. To the discussion of that complicated question 
he brought knowledge of American financial history as well 
as clear moral sense. The L3mde Prize debate, which he 
had won at Princeton, was upon the repeal of the first sec- 
tion of the Silver Act of 1878. He then opposed the de- 
monetization of silver for both historical and theoretical 
reasons. From 1792 to 1873 the legal standard of value in 
the United States was the double one of gold and silver at 
prescribed ratios. By the Coinage Act of 1873 the silver 
dollar, which was then worth more than the gold dollar, 
and which no one could foresee would ever be worth less, 
was dropped from the coinage, leaving gold as the only full 
legal-tender coined money. The value of silver began to 
decline soon after the passage of the law, and straightway 
in the silver mining country a movement was begun that 
aimed to restore the sixteen to one silver dollar to free 
coinage. Silver had a real value which was at that time 



JARVIS HALL DAYS 55 

not greatly less than sixteen of silver to one of gold in weight. 
It was contended by men in the East, the creditors of West- 
ern farmers, that the Bland dollar was a "dishonest dollar " 
and in the interest of the debtors. On the other hand, the 
Western men held that the departure from the double 
standard was responsible for the depression of prices and 
the increase in the burden of all debts. The truth was, 
the world was experiencing an over-production of silver 
brought about by the immense increase in silver mines in 
the West, in Australia and New Zealand. Had there not 
been a corresponding increase in the production of gold the 
East would indeed have become "the enemy's country" 
to the men of the West ; and had silver been restored to free 
coinage, the West would have profited at the expense of 
the East. What was taking place in the world's supply of 
gold and silver was unknown to the people at large, at that 
time, and the discussion, consequently, was confined to 
history and theory. 

The lad who had organized the Garfield Club in the presi- 
dential election of 1880, now played a man's part in the 
election of 1896. Spalding made several speeches in 
Colorado and argued for free coinage of silver at every 
available opportimity. The point which naturally most 
interested him was the charge, made by the Eastern press 
and many of his nearest friends in the East, that the Bland 
dollar was a "dishonest dollar." This charge struck at his 
innermost convictions, and he met it with all the history, 
theory and moral earnestness at his command. A news- 
paper account of one of his lectures (on another subject) 
says, " The lecturer concluded with a very forceful and elo- 
quent plea for bimetaUism and it is safe to say that whether 
the audience agreed with the speaker on this economic 
question^ or not, they were all deHghted with his courage 



$6 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

and earnestness." A presidential election in the United 
States, when a great issue is at stake, presents to the world 
the thrilHng spectacle of a great people going to school. 
The nation, by fixing its attention for a few weeks upon one 
common problem, in the give and take of free discussion, 
thinks its way to a solution. In that inspiring democratic 
enterprise Frank Spalding played his part as an American 
citizen. On the public platform as in the pulpit what 
impressed his hearers was the moral courage and the enthu- 
siastic earnestness of the man himself. 



VI 

The Parish House 

On Easter Day, 1897, St. PauFs Church, Erie, FeimsyU 
vania, extended a unanimous call to Frank Spalding to 
become their rector. After long hesitation, due to his deep 
feeling that he belonged in the West, and only under the 
urging of his parents who saw that his talent was that of 
preacher rather than that of teacher, he accepted. The 
announcement of his decision was received by St. Paul's 
with delight, for he had been bom in Erie, and had passed 
his early boyhood and every alternate vacation there since 
his father had become the bishop of Colorado. To the old 
parish and its new problems he brought a singularly mature 
judgment for a man of thirty-one, great decision of char- 
acter, unusual executive ability, a scholarly mind, preach- 
ing ability of a high order and, especially, a big heart and 
manly traits which were soon to endear him to all. 

St. PauPs Parish, organized in 1827, was the oldest Epis- 
copal Church in Erie, and one of the strongest parishes of 
the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In the rectorship of Frank 
Spalding's father, 1862-1874, a new edifice costing sixty 
thousand dollars had been built, and cottage lectures and 
mothers' meetings, out of which afterwards grew several 
seK-supporting parishes, had been organized in various 
parts of the growing city ; moreover, sixteen churches had 
been built in the deanery. After the removal of Bishop 
Spalding to Colorado the parish experienced short rector- 

57 



58 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ates, innovations of ritual, with consequent disturb- 
ances, and finally, the defection of a small portion of the 
people who desired "Catholic practices." When Frank 
Spalding arrived upon the scene St. Paul's was not the 
thriving, missionary parish it had been. The vestry apolo- 
getically urged their former rector, the Bishop, to persuade 
his son to accept their call in spite of the reduced salary 
which they offered. Erie had grown, but St. Paul's had 
neither grown with it nor adapted its work to the new tasks 
and problems of the modem city. To make a modern 
parish of an old church was the mission of Frank Spalding 
in Erie. 

""^ With his usual humor he writes to his cousin, daughter 
of a Presbyterian minister. 

Jarvis Hall, May i, 1896. 

What do you think of my living in Erie ? I am not sure about 
it myself. But there was nothing else to be done. If you happen 
to be going along Seventh Street I wish you would drop in at 
the rectory and see what kind of a place it is and whether there 
is any furniture in it. If not, I'll have to borrow some blankets 
and camp out until I can buy some. I am afraid I'll shock those 
people with "wild western ways." Rev. Mr. H. who is a great 
dude, told me that it would do me good to go east for awhile to 
polish up, so remember that you have to help accomplish that 
difficult job. There is one good thing about being in Erie ; I 
can do what I can, though possibly it is little and hopeless as well, 
to stop the further growth of Presbyterian heresy and schism 
which you are spreading there. I hope to see you July i, or 
thereabouts." 

Spalding finished his work at Jarvis Hall with the June 
commencement, and, in characteristic fashion, straightway 
entered upon his new duties on the first Sunday of July. 
The church was filled both morning and evening with mem- 



THE PAHISH HOUSE 59 

bers of the congregation and other admirers of the new 
rector. Preaching without notes, he spoke in the morning 
on the unity of faith and work in a modern parish, and, 
in the evening, on the knowledge of the Son of God as essen- 
tial to the perfect man. It was into the work of preaching 
that he threw himself that first year. 

To His Mother 

Erie, 1896. 

I preached in the morning an old sermon and in the .evening a 
new one. I do not know yet what I am going to preach about 
next Sunday. I will be rather glad to have Advent come so 
that there will be special subjects. 

I am preaching sermons on the Temptation which I wrote at 
All Saints' and they seem tp me to be just as good as anything I 
can write now and the people speak well of them too. Probably 
they are good because they were suggested by good books. We 
had splendid congregations yesterday both morning and evening. 

I find that with my address and Bible class I can not get up 
more than one sermon a week. This afternoon I did what I 
hope I shall never do again, preached an extempore sermon pure 
and simple, on Phil. 1:5. I had been so busy through the week 
that I really did not have time to get up a sermon, and I did 
pretty poorly. There is so much to do that I hardly get time 
to read. 

Mr. A. disappointed me on Thursday and I had to preach an 
old sermon. I selected one that I had preached in the Cathedral 
on one of the Sunday evenings I took the Dean's place. I re- 
membered it and thought it was good, but when I came to read 
it over I discovered that I had changed my opinion about some 
things in it and so I couldn't very well preach it just as it was, 
and in its changed form it didn't go very well. 

1897. 

I would not feel so good for nothing if it wasn't for the preach- 
ing. Do you know that I have made 240 sermons and addresses. 



6o FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

since I came here, and last year, according to the convention 
journal only 170 were made by the three ministers in Calvary 
Church, Pittsburgh. It makes me ashamed of myself to think 
what a gas bag I must be, and yet I do not see how it can be 
stopped. I sort of feel as if I was saying nothing at all in the 
sermon. It is certainly harder to preach extempore than simply 
to read. I know I am improving as far as use of words and 
flow of language is concerned, but in the matter of the sermon, 
I sometimes feel as if I said nothing at all, and that I had said 
all I know or can know and I do not seem to have much time 
to learn more. That silly woman who writes to you about my 
sermons makes me tired and all the more uncertain of myself. 
Can the sermons really amount to much if they only appeal to 
old women? 

Don't think I am an invalid and need a rest for I do not think 
that I do. Only the preaching is a worry for I want to set a 
high standard and not fall below. And sometimes I wonder 
what in the world I am going to be able to say next Sunday. 
I admit that I usually find some text before Sunday comes but 
I worry a little more than I should. I wish I had a more general 
reading than I have and it is my own fault for you used to try 
to make me and I wouldn't read good things. 

I got along pretty well on Sunday, though I used, I think, 
my very last old sermon, fit to use, and now I will have either 
to use again in the evening last year's morning sermons or get 
up two a week. 

I am not sure that my way of preparing sermons is wise. 
When I have preached at Trinity in the afternoon, I always 
preach that sermon better at night, and if I could in some way 
preach off every sermon once before delivering it I would do 
better. I am going to be more careful about delivery ; I think, 
though, that I am improving some. 

It seems very strange that often people say the sermons upon 
which the least time is put are the best, which convinces me that 



THE PARISH HOUSE 6j 

the complimentary things people say are rather worthless judg- 
ments. 

In answer to a letter from his sister teasing him for being 
unable to say no and for thinking he could talk on any 
subject, he wrote : 

*^A11 you say is true. Both the reasons you propose are cor- 
rect. I am both weak and conceited, although I hope it's more 
the first than the second, for I do try to be humble and though 
I may do all this talking and preaching no one knows better than 
I. I know that the most I say is simply rot. But, Sallie, what 
is a man to do ? I climb a mountain in Wyoming and write out 
an account of it. Mr. Taylor at Warren tells me it will be a 
great help to him if I will tell the story to the people there. He 
has been kind to me and I want to be kind to him. I tell him 
honestly that I do not think it will be worth hearing and I mean 
it. He thinks differently and so I go to Warren. Uncle Rob 
asks me to deliver the same thing before the Chestnut Street 
Church. He knows what it is and says the people want to hear 
it. You yourself would be too weak to say no to Uncle Rob and 
so I do that. Miss Mary Selden comes and says the newsboys 
are anxious to hear about climbing the mountains. I know what 
self den)dng work she is doing and by this time I am forced to 
think the mountain climb is interesting. So why shouldn't I go ? 

The Rev. Willis K. Crosby is doing really a good work among 
the working people in the east end of Erie. When times were 
so hard two years ago he got up a factory and let as many unem- 
ployed as wanted to run it on the co-operative plan. They made 
a patent dust pan and so a good many had a Hving out of it. He 
gets the men together to study interesting facts. He asked me 
whether I couldn't come some evening and talk to them on some 
subject. I told him I did not know anything. Finally, he sug- 
gested some travels. I had lectured for Uncle Rob about mining 
in Colorado and I asked him if that would be any good and he 
said it would. I have also told this tale several times. 



62 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

G. C. is one of our communicants and a fine boy. He is in 
charge of the boys' department at the Y. M. C. A. A little while 
ago he had an offer to go to St. Louis and do the same work and 
get a lot more pay. He came to me and told me that he thought 
he ought to stay here, that the work was just beginning and 
that it might all fail if he left, and I told him he must stay and 
said I would help him all I could. So he asked me to tell the 
boys on a rainy Saturday afternoon about mining for gold in 
Colorado and Idaho. He also asked me to speak at the boys' 
meeting. You know I like to talk to boys and it was a pleasure 

to speak to i8o boys the other Sunday. When Mrs. 

came to ask me to speak on art, it struck me as a big joke and 
just to have it on Elisabeth I thought I'd say yes. It was very 
very silly and I felt ashamed of myself afterward when I saw 
how well prepared the others were. 

You know one likes to be useful. It seems so little to do what 
other people want you to do when they think your doing it will 
help them, and besides I know I get along better if I am very 
busy. If I have lots of time to myself I get to thinking about 
things which make me unhappy. If one has a lot of things which 
must be done then he simply has to do them and his thoughts are 
not on himself. As to preaching better, I know I ought to but 
I am afraid that I have not got in me the power of application 
which will ever make me a great preacher. I do not seem to be 
able to get into the heart of things but only little bits of the 
surface. Father once told me that I would never be able to 
write anything unless it was a novel. And so isn't it possible that 
this shallow talking is what I am made to do, and if it is not 
useful it is because I am not intended to be useful. I suppose 
no one could doubt for a moment that a man who paints a great 
picture of a great subject is a greater painter than one who 
makes a lot of pretty illustrations. But where there is one who 
can do it, there are a dozen illustrators. If I could by studying 
harder, by refusing to see the people who come to call, by never 
making any speeches but just my sermons, really preach great 
sermons then I would be justified in so doing, but I know I cannot 



THE PARISH HOUSE 6$ 

preach great sermons and, knowing that, I can possibly be more 
useful in just doing the feeble things I am doing. 

But in a way it does help St. Paul's, surprising as it may be, 
for the Sunday evening congregations are growing and many of 
the men who come are those whom I have become acquainted 
with when I have been gadding about. I will try to be more 
hiunble about it for I know that I am getting conceited and 
I hate that more than anything else. 

The size of the congregations at both morning and even- 
ing service grew steadily. One of the vestry, of whom 
another member said, " whenever he takes snuff all the vestry 
sneeze/' decided that the immediate need of the parish was 
the enlargement of the church, and, on his own initiative, 
accordingly had plans made. Spalding, however, had been 
studying the needs of Erie and he decided that what the 
community needed was a well-equipped parish house and 
the service to the boys and girls which it would make pos- 
sible. " I have just had a little experience of the delight of 
St. PauFs to fight," Frank wrote to his father, "I can see 
that if this Parish House is built and every one kept peace- 
able I shall have to be very wise and very harmless." And 
then he told in detail of his vestryman's inconsistency and 
his demand for an apology from another vestryman. "The 

whole thing is an attempt of to boss the whole job 

and that's right enough if he does it well. But it is going 
to be hard for me to be bossed by him or any one else if he 
don't want what I want. And I do not think I can take 
from him or anyone else what T. took according to his own 
account. Well, there is no cause for trouble yet but I con- 
fess I begin to understand where other rectors had difi&culty 
in uniting the parish. Though it is amusing too. A. C. 
puts a financial value on everything ; — the only good man 
to have on the vestry or in the church is the man who will 



64 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

give." While everyone was talking of the size of the con- 
gregations and the vestry were planning enlargements of 
the building, Spalding quietly had the people counted. He 
was himself disappointed with the discovery, but it was an 
effective demonstration of his contention. In a Church 
which seated seven himdred the largest congregation at any 
one service was three hundred and thirteen ! 

In the light of these figures the talk of enlarging the 
church was absurd and the vestry unanimously decided 
to build the parish house. His suggestion that they inves- 
tigate the whole matter of parish houses received cordial 
support and he was sent to Philadelphia and New York 
to see what other parishes had done. It was characteristic 
of him that when he had a hard problem to solve he first 
solved it himself and then before annoimcing his conclusion 
turned to others for aU the light they might be able to throw 
upon it. He found in Philadelphia "much money spent 
but not many ideas, and in Germantown an idea or two." 
In Brooklyn he stayed with Dr. McConnell who was himself 
building a parish house, and was deeply impressed with his 
advice not to let parish work interfere with preaching and 
the study which good preaching required. He visited va- 
rious types of parish houses in New York and discovered 
that a skilled workman can make good use of any tool and 
the best tool in the hand of a poor workman is useless. 
He returned to Erie with a clarified idea of the type of build- 
ing which could be built on the lot 53 X 70 and the kind of 
parish work which could effectively be done in it. The 
vestry followed their rector's suggestions and the parish 
house began to take definite shape. 

Meanwhile, Spalding devoted all his energy and time to 
the pastoral and prophetic work of his parish. "It is get- 
ting so that I have no time to myself alone and I am going 



THE PAMSH HOUSE 65 

to have office hours just as soon as I can decide which will 
be the most convenient. I have had seven calls since I 
began this letter." The rectory was on the way between 
the office district and the residential section and the club 
where many of his men took lunch, and they had a way of 
dropping in going and coming. There were many sick 
people and because of these sick calls the general calling 
on the parishioners progressed slowly. On Wednesday 
evenings he had a Bible class; on Saturday afternoons in 
Lent he told stories to the children of the parish; and on 
other days had a daily service. As soon as he got an assist- 
ant he had a children's service at St. PauFs Sunday after- 
noon; he had two Confirmation classes to prepare in one 
year ; on Sundays, there was an early service at 7.30, and, 
once a month, at Trinity, followed by Sunday School at 
9.30, Morning Prayer and sermon at 11, afternoon service 
and sermon at Trinity Mission, evening service and ser- 
mon. In addition to these regular demands there was fre- 
quently a funeral on Sunday or an address before the 
Y. M. C. A. Then, too, he had a large correspondence 
which he carried on with his own hand. "This is the tenth 
letter this a.m.," he writes. "I wish I could get more 
time for reading and study, but it is hard work doing any- 
thing. So many sick and so many other things to attend 
to." In spite of the incessant interruptions and the urgent 
demands upon his energy, he wrote home, "After Jarvis 
Hall this is a perfect snap, the people are so easily satisfied. 
One's sense of duty is a funny thing. I have not yet got 
to feeling quite as if I ought to have left Jarvis Hall and it 
seems to me that I have come to such an easy place." 

In the pressure of such activities he found no time for 
physical exercise, other than walking on his parish calls, 
which was not enough for a man of his physique and vital- 



66 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ity. Mr. Montgomery who became his assistant at this 
time, says, "While writing I should say that his brain was 
working under great pressure for he would draw in his 
breath like a man straining with his muscles." At the end 
of the week, however, he broke away and found relief and 
recreation in his favorite game of foot-ball. " I played foot- 
ball on Saturday and got the prettiest pair of black eyes 
you ever saw. I wore my spectacles on Sunday all the time 
and they were pretty well hidden, but on Monday they 
were even blacker and to-day they are going through the 
yellow green stage. I enjoyed the game, though, and know 
that it did me good. You see there is so much sick visiting 
and talking to women and holding babies that to get out 
with men in hard manly sport is refreshing. I do not mean 
that the other is not manly but one likes a change and the 
sterner, rougher side is needed. It has made me acquainted 
with more men than in any other way I have been able to 
find." While Spalding was on the foot-ball field there was 
less swearing and quarreling and he was certainly doing as 
much good as if he were calling on the sick, of which he had 
enough to do. 

Interested in men and believing in the manliness of 
Christ, Spalding was a fisher of men. As a boy he was an 
enthusiastic fisherman and as a minister of the Galilean he 
carried the boy's enthusiasm and skill into the pursuit of 
men. He gathered a small group of men together to form 
a chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew and set them 
also to fish for men. "We got our brotherhood started on 
Thursday night with Mr. Shacklett for Director and Mr. 
George Barber for Secretary. I hope it will go. If it gets 
the young men of the church really interested what a shak- 
ing up it will give old St. Paul's Church ! Some of the men 
are dead in earnest and mean really to try to get men to 



THE PARISH HOUSE 67 

come to church and if they come there will not be room 

for Mrs. to occupy a whole pew, and several others 

who do the same. Possibly it may lead to free seats which 
I believe in with all my heart. '^ Like a good fisherman he 
knew that all fish do not rise to the same bait, and he ar- 
ranged a series of Sunday evening subjects to catch men to 
whom the regular morning service did not appeal. With 
the Brotherhood extending a personal invitation to indi- 
vidual men and the preacher giving them something when 
they came, there was indeed a shaking up of old St. PauFs. 
By vote of the congregation the seats were made free at the 
evening service in order to seat promptly all who .came 
in the best seats and to assure them of a hearty welcome on 
the^part of^the parish. 

Though adman's man, Spalding was the minister of all, 
women as well as men,' rich no less than poor. What his 
real feeling was is shown in the following letter. 

To His Mother 

" Got home from the dinner at midnight and will write you a 

line or two. The house is most magnificent. I was never 

in such a place. It is like the English castles, only everything is 
new and beautiful, and, I should think, in wonderfully good 
taste. But I would rather live in a shack against a rock up the 
Platte than in such a place. The dinner beat anything I have 
ever seen. The table was nothing but silver and gold. You must 
not think that I am getting to be cynical and critical and un- 
charitable about everyone, for I don't think I am. But you are 
the only person I can express my candid sentiments to and it is 
a relief to do it. 

It's a relief to go and see poor people and sick people, they are 

so glad to see you. Did you ever know ? She used to live 

on a farm and come in to market and yesterday afternoon I went 
to give her Easter communion. The real religious joy of that old 



68 TRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

lady, nearly eighty and so crippled with rheumatism that she can 
not walk, made me feel happy enough to get cheerfully through 
Mrs. 's grandeur and deadness." 

One of the memorable institutions in St. Paul's during 
Frank Spalding's rectorship was the children's service. 
It was held on Sunday afternoons in the church, and the 
choral part was rendered entirely by boys and girls ; even 
the versicles were intoned by a boy chorister. Boys also 
took up the offering. In place of a sermon Spalding told 
a story. He made use of children's historical novels, tell- 
ing the tale and, after the fashion of serial stories ending at 
an exciting place with "continued in our next." In this 
way he covered the entire period of Church history. On the 
special feasts he would tell stories that had the special 
messages. Children came in large munbers to the services 
and found them interesting and at times exciting. The 
series of children's services came to an end each year on 
Ascension Day, when, after the festival service, there was 
a grand supper in the parish house. 

Though fully occupied with his work and plans for St. 
Paul's, Frank Spalding never forgot that he was a missionary 
and his field was the world. His interest included the dio- 
cese and the work of the general Church. Recognizing his 
interest the Bishop urged him to be the "reviver" of the 
convocation of the northern part of the diocese which had 
not been held for four years. That invitation he declined 
on the ground that he had been so short a time in the dio- 
cese and did not want to seem to tell other men their duty. 
The West particularly was uppermost in his thoughts and 
he not only kept it before his own people as worthy of their 
financial support but he spoke about it in many churches 
and before the diocesan convention. He was appointed a 
member of the Ecclesiastical Court and was elected alternate 



THE PARISH HOUSE 69 

deputy to the General Convention of 1898. "I don't 
want to hear any more objections to my orthodoxy/' he 
wrote to his sister. Clergymen asked his advice on all 
sorts of questions which perplexed them, and profited by his 
clearness of thought. As early as 1898 Frank Spalding 
was looked upon by some as a possible missionary bishop. 
Bishop Tuttle nominated him for that ofl&ce in the House 
of Bishops, but his time had not yet come. 

In September, 1898, after many vexatious delays, the 
new parish house was opened. It was the most complete 
building of its kind outside of the great Eastern cities. It 
had gymnasium with baths, an auditorium seating 500, 
rooms for classes and guilds, a large game room for boys and 
a reading room, kitchen and dining room. St. Paul's was 
now equipped with the necessary tools for effective service 
in a modern city. 

In building the parish house Spalding had in mind the 
work of the organizations of the parish and the needs of the 
community. The Sunday school was first. What he had 
learned as the principal of a boys' school he applied to the 
religious teaching of children. ReUgious education de- 
manded as efficient machinery as secular education. The 
parish house was the school house. There was a daily 
free kindergarten. The Woman's Auxiliary and other 
guilds which had met in the rectory or some private resi- 
dence were now properly housed, as was the Brotherhood 
of St. Andrew. The physical, recreational and social 
needs of the children were also in his mind. In the gym- 
nasiimi and play room the church was to serve the boys and 
girls on the six days of the week as in the auditoriima and 
elsewhere it would minister to them on the first day. A 
branch of the Girls' Friendly Society with a membership of 
fifty young women was started. Young men were reached 



70 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

by means of a men's club, the St. Paul's Club, which within 
a short time had two hundred members. The parish house 
and church, standing side by side, were a symbol of the desire 
of the Church to serve the whole man, body as well as soul, 
soul no less than body, and to meet the needs of the com- 
munity, not one day but seven days of the week. As in 
the villages of New England the white church beside the 
Common, where it was seen of all men, was a vital symbol of 
the place of religion in the life of the village, so the parish 
house with its manifold ministry became a symbol of the 
place of religion in the life of the modern city. 



VII 

Spiritual Growth 

Frank Spalding, as we have seen, entered the theologi- 
cal seminary a High Churchman by inheritance. College 
aroused in him no doubts nor, apparently, any desire to 
restate his traditional faith in terms of modern thought. 
In the Seminary he was presented with CathoHc teaching, 
which, like that of the Scribes and Pharisees, was based 
entirely on tradition. Something in the very construction 
of his mind rebelled against this dogmatism, and he grad- 
uated from the Seminary without any theology which 
sprang spontaneously and naturally out of life and experi- 
ence. For the first four years of his ministry he was 
engaged in teaching boys; a fruitful apprenticeship, but 
one which naturally did not conduce to the development 
of religious experience and a corresponding theological inter- 
pretation. It was when he entered upon his rich and 
varied ministry in Erie, with its intimate contact with 
mature rehgious experience and its wider reading of books 
dealing with modern problems, that he found his intel- 
lectual self. 

A certain bishop once confessed to Spalding that he 
found no time to read anything other than the Church 
papers. Spalding straightway resolved that he would 
profit by this example of intellectual torpor. He accord- 
ingly set for himself a schedule; the early hours of the 
morning were to be devoted to reading, and he would read 

71 



72 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

in that period worthwhile books, new and old. Professor 
Kemper FuUerton, of Oberlin College, a lifelong friend of 
Spalding, writes, "I think all who knew Spalding after he 
entered his life work were amazed at the amoimt of reading 
he was able to accomplish, engrossed as he was in the prac- 
tical affairs of his parish or diocese. It was not reading of 
the predigested sort which too many clergymen gradually 
come to rely upon and which is to be foimd in the weekly 
religious newspapers. He read the great quarterlies and 
reviews, and books that required a real mental effort to 
assimilate. It was a constant source of surprise to me, when 
we met together for our annual summer vacations, to dis- 
cover the extent of his reading during the previous winter, 
much of it a highly technical character, but all of it well 
digested, the real kernel of a book or review article having 
been skillfully picked out of its shell. It was in this way 
that Frank sought to make good the loss which he had suf- 
fered in his college and seminary days." 

To His Mother 

March 21, 1898. 

I am sorry we can't agree about the Bible. I don't know I 
ajm sure why I came to think about it as I do because I haven't 
read very much and you taught me to think as you do. But 
without any violent change, without any doubts, I have sort of 
gradually passed over into a different way of looking at the whole 
subject. I am sure it does mean a lot to me while the old view 
didn't mean anything at all for I didn't think for myself then. 
I can't believe that the Devil has tempted me, for really I know 
God is more real to me now than he ever was before and I haven't 
any doubt about Him and His help and what my own duty is. 
And surely that help doesn't come from the Devil. I'd ten 
times rather think of Abraham as a splendid pioneer, believing 
in one God and yet tempted all the time to adopt a lower form of 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH 73 

living but bravely resisting and proving faithful to the end, than 
to think of ^im as different from other men and in some way 
especially helped and taught as God does not help and teach me. 

As to Higher Criticism, I don't know anything about it. I 
can't even find out much, but it does seem to me that this talk 
of disagreement of authorities is not justified for there does seem 
to be agreement upon a great deal of the criticism. But the 
point is that one does not wish to hang his belief in inspiration 
and revelation upon something which is bound utterly to give 
way if the Higher Criticism is true. 

It almost frightens me, however, when I write down what I 
actually believe progressive revelation must involve about Old 
Testament miracles and communications from God. 

Nevertheless, Spalding did write down what he thought, 
and read it as an essay before Convocation. The subject 
was "The Bible and how we must think of it to-day,'' and 
he divided it into three sections : (i) The Bible is a pro- 
gressive revelation; (2) The men were inspired, not the 
Book; (3) The Church produced the Bible and not the 
Bible the Church. The paper stirred up the brethren and 
an exciting discussion followed. Spalding wrote to his 
sister that some of the brethren were interested not in "How 
to think but how to get along without thinking. But the 
Bishop made a good closing speech in which he approved of 
the paper in fine shape." He sent the paper to his father 
and awaited his answer with some anxiety. Bishop Spald- 
ing found fault with the essay because of its attitude toward 
miracles, inspiration and typology. "Are there no types 
in the Old Testament, are events and persons never typ- 
ical?" Frank replied that the typology of the Old Testa- 
ment as taught in the General Theological Seminary re- 
duced historical characters to puppets. To his father's 
charge that the paper was pure rationalism he replied, 



74 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

"You surely wouldn't prefer to have it irrational, would 
you?" 

In the Episcopal Church many men accepted the results 
of the new study of the Bible because the seat of reHgious 
authority for them was not the Bible as with men of other 
Protestant Churches, but the Church. It was their con- 
tention that the Church produced the Bible, not the Bible 
the Church. When driven to define where in the Church 
the authority resides, they fell back upon the Ecumenical 
Councils, which they vested with infallibility. In reply 
to such arguments Spalding held that "the General Coun- 
cils were no more infallible than the Lambeth Conference. 
I do not believe that absolutely infallible authority ever 
comes in. We walk by faith and not by sight." When the 
advocates of an infallible revelation asked, "Where, then, 
are we to find ultimate truth," he replied, "The only test 
of truth seems to be time, — the survival of the fittest." 

To His Mother 

March i, 1898. 

I am reading Dr. DuBose's book on the Ecumenical Councils. 
If I had read it before writing my paper I could have had some 
other quotations for he is guilty of the same inconsistency which 
I object to. On page 36 you will see that he makes all depend 
upon the moral argument. If one says that to him Jesus Christ 
is the way, the truth and the life, and that he does not believe 
that miracles happened, what are you going to say to him ? Es- 
pecially after you have insisted that Christianity and miracles 
cannot be separated. There are a lot of people who are just in 
that position and lots more who really are but do not admit it. 

About this time one of Spalding's classmates in the 
Seminary resigned from the ministry. He was the victim 
of the General Theological Seminary. It had sent him 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH 75 

into the ministry unprepared to work out his own intellec- 
tual salvation. A man of fine mind and earnest spirit, 
he tried to meet in isolation the perplexing theological 
questions which any adequately equipped seminary would 
have presented to him in the midst of his fellows and under 
the direction of older and scholarly minds. Spalding tried 
to help his friend by letter, but as he was going through a 
like experience, he began to fear that his writing did more 
harm than good. He felt very badly when the final word 
came from his friend that his resignation had been sent, but 
he believed that he had done "the only honest thing." 
In his heart, however, he thought that his friend's "trouble 
was lack of trouble. * Before I was troubled I went wrong.' " 
His was a suburban parish apart from the pressing problems 
of common life and he spent more time than is good for a 
man, in time of doubt, on the intellectual aspects of reh- 
gion. Frank Spalding gradually passed from a tran- 
scendent to an immanent conception of the Divine Life, in 
the midst of the common life where the demands of all sorts 
of men kept his spiritual balance true. 

When one is meeting men who have no faith in God or 
man and determine their Kves by no standard of right, 
following expediency and seeking success and pleasure, he 
is compelled to be constructive and affirmative. It is only 
a man of conviction who can restore faith. Spalding 
found that no one was helped by what he did not believe. 
"One wants, if he can," he wrote, "to put it so that it wiU 
help." He therefore preached his convictions. But, while 
positive and affirmative, he did not ignore the corollaries 
of his proposition ; he let men understand where he stood. 
One of his vestry, a young man like himself, would fre- 
quently come into the vestryroom after one of his sermons, 
exclaiming, "Another prop gone." What he had been 



76 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

thinking essential as a support of religion Spalding took 
away Sunday by Sunday, leaving him, however, with a 
firmer appreciation than ever of true religion, the love of 
God and the neighbor. 

"It seems to me," he wrote, "one wants to include all 
partial statements in a bigger whole, not to take the time 
to refute them." Thus when he wished to preach against 
sacerdotalism in the Church he chose for his subject, "The 
Universal Priesthood." All men and women in the Church 
are priests and priestesses, as all are kings and queens in 
the American state. "A priest offers sacrifices, and we are 
all to offer the sacrifice of ourselves. The priest brings 
down God's blessing, and so shall we all, if we only offer 
ourselves to God so that He can bless us." For clerical as- 
sumption and episcopal arrogance Spalding found no place. 
"I sometimes wonder," he writes his mother, "whether 
the English notions of a bishop as a great man living in a 
palace isn't growing so that bishops in the East who think 
themselves great men and do keep up fine establishments 
don't want to enlarge the class too much for fear a bishop 
will be a less wonderful and honored being. Having the 
exalted views of the temporal dignity of the episcopate, 
they let the money question stand in the way of electing 
more. I never could understand why a bishop must have 
a salary of $3000. The danger of course is that rich men 
are elected just because they are rich and so the episcopate 
becomes a matter of purchase. But I am sure every good 
man who was called to be a bishop would not think of the 
salary at all, if bishops were not expected to make such a 
fair show in the flesh. It seems as if, in order to be 
truly apostolic we ought to have bishops everywhere. 
General missionaries and archdeacons ought to be bishops 
if they really could do better work having authority 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH 77 

which priests cannot have. I suppose you will think this 
disrespectful." 

Spalding's mind was concerned not merely with the 
externals of religion, but sought reality even at its heart, 
the Hfe of prayer. 

To His Father 

Jan. 4, 1895. 

Do you really believe that prayer is more than a subjective 
thing? I am beginning to feel as if it could not and is not 
intended to be more. This is not saying that prayer is useless. 
I could not have stood at aU the past eight months, if I 
had not prayed. To be able to pour out one's soul to God, 
to tell Him what you long for, and ask His help to make you 
brave, brings with it a relief and power without which one 
simply could not exist. But do you honestly think it does 
anything more? I don't see how it can — for God does not 
move people against their wills, and when our prayers are 
prayers which involve the actions of other free agents, how can 
God answer them? 

About that fixity of interpretation? I do not see what they 
or rather you meant. For example, "The Resurrection of the 
body." We beHeve that article of the creed but there have been 
great differences of interpretation as to what the words mean. 
So also with, "For us men and our salvation," many views of 
salvation have been maintained. So I should think that it was 
not fixity of interpretation that is the essence of creeds but rather 
that the essence of truth, variously interpreted, is that for which 
creeds stand. 

We had an interesting discussion at the ministers' meeting^on 
Christian unity this morning. None of the parsons were hopeful 
of complete organic unity and most of them doubted whether 
it would be a good thing. I insisted that both the prayer of 
Jesus and the analogies He used about the kingdom showed that 
he asked for organic unity and that the Episcopal Church in- 
sisted upon the Historic Episcopate because it was the only form 



78 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

of government and life which could be in any sense organic and 
that by it unity for hundreds of years had been realized. My 
remarks, however, did not create any interest except for a young 
Methodist who wants to read something on the Historic Episco- 
pate as he knows nothing about it. 

The ministers^ meeting, to which the above letter refers, 
was the weekly gathering of all the Protestant ministers of 
Erie. Spalding accepted an election to its membership on 
going to Erie and remained a member of the group until 
he was consecrated Bishop of Utah. The meeting brought 
together various types of men and points of view, upon a 
basis of good fellowship, and made for a better understand- 
ing and for united action. "I think that association is a 
very good thing and, without in the least compromising 
one's principles, one can learn a good deal, and I think also 
have some influence. '' Among the Erie ministers the Rector 
of St. PauFs was known as a radical in theology. Logical 
in his mental processes and always frank, he gave utter- 
ance to opinions which frequently shocked the more con- 
servative, but the statement of which always commanded 
their respect. He insisted that the group should be as 
inclusive as the church in Erie. When an attempt was 
made to limit the membership to evangelical Christians, 
Spalding took the floor and declared that if there was no 
place for the Unitarian minister in the group there was no 
place for the rector of St. Paul's. The Unitarian minister 
was, accordingly, elected to membership. In most of the 
discussions the Unitarian, Spalding and a liberal Presby- 
terian found themselves together on one side with the 
majority lined up on the other. 

Frank Spalding had at this period of his life an experi- 
ence of far-reaching importance. In later years souls 
undergoing deep loss or disappointment marveled to find 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH 79 

in this successful man of action and vigorous mentality 
delicate sympathy and rare insight. His spiritual discern- 
ment was born of personal disappointment. 

To His Mother 

Erie, May 13, 1898. 

That piece of poetry by Longfellow is very nice but do you 
know that philosophy doesn't seem to help much. The highest 
appeal is not a promise of reward in any shape, here or hereafter. 
It is rather an appeal to do our best to bear for God what God 
sends, whether you are going to see why or not. Paia, as far 
as we can see, is necessary, for men would be hard and pitiless 
without suffering. But think how hard it must be for God to 
have it so ! But He has to for the higher good of man. And 
so those who suffer are sharing with God His heaviest burden. 
He gives to them who suffer undeserved pain the glory of the 
fellowship of His sufferings, — helping Him to do what it is hard- 
est for Him to do. That way of looking at it helps most any 
way. The hard part about it all was that my sorrow seemed 
such a selfish thing when I knew that I was or at least I honestly 
try to be imselfish. But some way this view of things helps me 
to see that suffering is not selfish. It's helping to fill up the 
measure of His sufferings. Bearing for God for the good of the 
world, God's heaviest load. I don't know whether you can 
understand. Even if it doesn't lessen the pain, it helps one to 
be braver about it and that is comfort enough. 

Don't worry about me, for I am sure that I don't want any- 
thing that God doesn't think best or that would make me a bit 
less useful. There is lots of use for single men in the ministry 
and if that is what he wants me to be, then really I am perfectly 
wiUing. You surely do not think I ought to be able to say that 
it wouldn't be beautiful the other way. I wouldn't do that, I 
think I would be very wrong if I could. You say that because 
God took Ned it is all well and you submit and do your best 
without him, but do you not think you ought to be able to say. 



8a FRANKLIN SPENCEK SPALDING 

*'It would have been fine if he had lived and grown up the splen- 
did man he must have been." I know that you don't feel that 
you should not say that, 

I am writing father telling him that if he wants me to try 
Jarvis Hall again I will. Of course I don't want to leave Erie 
for it is giving up a very appreciative people, a useful work 
and a hope which I simply can not quite give up. But to have 
father struggling with those schools and no one to help him, to 
have to lose all that property for the Church without a harder 
fight doesn't seem quite right. 

The mountains ever brought to Frank Spalding healing 
and inspiration, and in the summer of 1898 he spent his 
vacation climbing the Grand Teton in Wyoming, 187 miles 
from the railroad, — a peak never climbed before or since. 

This peak, 13,800 feet high, towering over precipices with 
a sheer drop of 3000 feet, and surrounded by glaciers and 
great fields of snow banks with hidden crevasses, is to the 
Rockies what the Matterhorn is to the Alps. Here is 
Spalding's description of the most difficult section of the 
climb, given in an interview to the Cheyenne Republican, 

"Naturally, the north side of any large and supposedly 
inaccessible peak is supposed to be the hardest climb. 
But the Matterhorn is climbed most easily by the north 
side, so was the Grand Teton. We decided to stick to 
the north, and cautiously made our way along our gallery 
until the man in front suddenly drew back with the 
remark that it ended in a precipice that shot sheer down 
for 3000 feet. 

Below the gallery and jutting out from the wall of rock 
were two large slabs, probably six feet in length, which had 
been sprung out from the main wall by the action of the ice 
and rain. Behind those, after lowering ourselves to them, 



SPIRITUAL GROWTH 8 1 

we crawled along a distance of twenty feet, which brought 
us to a little ledge under an overhanging rock. The ledge 
was so narrow that we were forced to crawl on our stomachs. 

"The consciousness that a fall would land us 3000 feet 
below gave us a decidedly creepy sensation. We had to 
dig our fingers in the rough granite in places to pull our- 
selves along. We encouraged each other by keeping up a 
natural conversation, but it was with an inward feehng of 
relief that we left the ledge and came to a sort of niche with 
a small overhanging rock. Over this we threw a rope — ■ 
an action that required a cool and steady hand and a keen 
eye. We pulled ourselves up and out over this 3000 feet 
of space and continued up on the niche to about 50 feet. 
It was so narrow that we had to use our feet, elbows and 
knees. All of the rock was slippery and we could not go 
too carefully. When we reached the top we went on an- 
other gallery for a distance of nearly 200 feet to the west; 
then up another ice niche, in which we were forced to cut 
five steps. It was sixty feet high and led on to a ridge. 
We followed a snow ridge for 200 feet, and then over the 
sharp, jagged, eruptive rocks, so noticeable above the 
timber-line, clambered with a shout to the top. We had 
been climbing for eleven hours. It was a grand sight, one 
of the grandest on earth." 

Something within the man found outlet in that hazard- 
ous adventure. With a deeper knowledge of himseK and 
a clearer vision of God, Spalding returned to Erie to adven- 
ture all for Christ and His Church. 



VIII 

His Approach to the Social Problem 

There is a vital relation between the new theology and 
social reform. The medieval view of life which sees the 
true state beyond death and regards existence here as a 
mere prelude can not seriously undertake the reformation 
of society. The Protestant Reformation led to the PoHtical 
Revolution, historically, and the reformation of the Refor- 
mation leads, spiritually, to the social revolution. 

In the soul of Frank Spalding, as a microcosmos, the 
cosmic drama was unfolded. Not suddenly, but Uttle by 
Httle, did he awaken to the significance of the new day 
which had dawned for America. Shortly after his going 
to Erie he spoke one Sunday afternoon to the prisoners 
in the penitentiary. In his audience he noticed there 
were boys. On inquiry, the former schoolmaster who 
knew how impressionable boys are, was shocked to find 
that it was the custom to put little boys into the same cells 
with the old criminals. At the ministers' meeting the fol- 
lowing Monday he described what he saw and told what it 
meant to those boys. He became from that moment a social 
reformer. He brought the subject of prison reform before 
the Erie Reform Club, telHng of the movement in America 
to lead the prisoners back to a Hfe of moral and physical 
health, and describing in detail the efforts being made at 
Elmira, N. Y. He wrote a paper on the subject which 
was printed by the Federation of Churches and circulated 

82 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 83 

throughout the county in as many papers as would print 
it, with the result that the County Commissioners provided 
quarters for juvenile prisoners and others not hardened in 
crime, separate from the quarters used to detain those who 
were classed as incorrigibly depraved. He led the self- 
respecting people in a protest against a professional prize 
fight which was forced upon Erie after Buffalo had cast it 
out. 

The free silver question, in which Spalding took such 
deep interest, had led him to think of the social problem on 
a national basis, deaUng as that question did with the rela- 
tions between a creditor class and a debtor class. "I 
have just read Fulton^s article in the Church Standard on 
the pohtical situation,^' wrote Frank to his father during 
the presidential campaign of 1896, "and it makes me so 
angry that I hardly know what to do. He ought to be 
answered in a calm and judicial way but positively and 
emphatically. The way Fulton is writing about Capital 
and the abused money classes makes you wonder if the 
paper is subsidized. '^ It was the silver question also that 
opened his eyes to the growing social discontent in America. 
"If you think the present all that it should be," he said in 
an address, "ask the miUions of impaid and ill fed educated 
men whose cause has not been pleaded, but whose rights are 
really just; ask men who a year ago were rich but whose 
wealth has taken wings and they will tell you that we are 
not living in the golden age, and that these United States 
of America cannot be called ideal.'' When Spalding went 
to Erie it seemed to him that the root of all this trouble 
was the "money power given to the banks to expand and 
contract as they please. It is simply monstrous." 

In Erie Spalding came to see that, "Free silver isn't 
enough but I had better be a Socialist or something stronger."' 



34 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

What was radically the trouble with the social structure he 
did not see, until his eyes were opened by the working-men 
of his parish. In Trinity Mission, the work of St. Paul's 
in a new part of Erie, the men were day laborers and me- 
chanics. These men were greatly agitated by the plans 
of the company to install mechanical hoists on the docks. 
The contact with these men led their rector to inquire for 
himself whether machinery helped the working class. He 
found that machinery was the working-man's rival in that 
particular instance, whatever may be said for it in the long 
rim. It did not cheapen prices for the men; it took the 
bread out of the mouths of many of them. The money 
which formerly went to labor now went to the machine, 
that is to capital, for capital and the owner of the machine 
are one and the same person. "What is the laborer going 
to do for his Hving?" was a vital question not only 
to the men but to the rector and his mission work. By 
facing their problem with his parishioners, Frank Spalding 
awoke to the fact that in modern society the tool-owner, 
that is capital, had the tool-user, that is labor, at a 
disadvantage. 

When in the Spring of 1898, Eugene Debs, beloved of 
the working-men in and outside the SociaHst circles, came 
to Erie to lecture, Spalding was invited to preside at the 
meeting. He declined the invitation " as out of his sphere." 
But after his experiences with the labor situation, above 
referred to, he became convinced that labor in all its phases 
was very much his concern and the concern of the Church. 
When, then, he was invited to give the Labor Day oration 
the following September he accepted. Had Spalding been 
asked to address the employers he would have accepted 
aiid, undoubtedly, would have encouraged them to work 
Out their moral problems and pointed out their short- 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 85; 

comings. Speaking to the labor men, he criticized certain 
faults of theirs at the same time that he expressed sympathy 
with their situation. That was always Spalding's way. 
He was primarily the prophet and spoke in order to tell 
men what they needed, not what they wanted to hear. 
The particular indictment which he drew against the 
unions was that many men had recently been allowing their 
wives and children to work in the factories, not to supply 
their necessities, but to increase their luxuries. This an- 
gered many of the men but stirred the consciences of others. 
The next day many of these men forbade their women to 
return to work. The shop most seriously affected belonged 
to one of the vestry of St. Paul's Church ! 

The sequel of that Labor Day address revealed to Frank 
Spalding that the Church is committed to the labor problem, 
but on the side of the employer. St. Paul's Church was 
preeminently a parish of employers rather than of employees, 
and at once opposition to his pro-labor activities sprang up 
from within. He was charged by the employers with hav- 
ing incited their employees to strike. The member of the 
vestry whose women employees gave up their jobs, sent in 
his resignation, without even giving his rector a chance to 
explain. The Spalding who had gone straight to his col- 
lege mate when he was told of his disaffection, and had 
sought to give the attorney the facts in the Jarvis Hall 
case, now sought an interview with his resigned vestryman. 
He found him obdurate; he would have no explanation 
and insisted on the acceptance of his resignation. The 
business of the Church was to preach the simple Gospel, 
and he refused longer to be responsible for a clergyman 
who didn't stick to his job. "I started for the door," said 
Spalding, "disheartened, when an idea occurred to me. I 
turned back and said, Mr. A., you have resigned from the 



86 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

vestry because of the effect you assert my speech had upon 
your workmen. What effect do you think your resignation 
will have upon B. (naming a certain labor leader) when he 
hears that it was because you thought I took the side of 
your employees against you. Do you think that will 
lessen your difficulties?" That was a poser and the resig- 
nation was withdrawn. 

It took no Uttle courage and conviction for Spalding to 
adopt the position he did in these labor controversies. 
Erie had been his old home and his course brought him 
into collision with his personal friends and the connections 
of his family. Frank Spalding was condemned later in 
Hfe for assuming the existence of social classes in America. 
He knew at first hand in Erie that there were two classes in 
America, a class that owned the means of production and 
the class that were wage earners and nothing more, and 
that between the two there was no social intercourse, and 
neither understood the other. It is but just to say, now 
that the causes of friction have long since passed, there are 
no greater admirers of Frank Spalding nor any more loyal 
to his memory than those same friends and connections. 
No one could be angry with him long, even when differences 
of opinion were pronounced. His motives were so obviously 
sincere, his unselfishness so transparent, there was such a 
complete absence of the demagogue in him, his espousal of 
the cause of the working-man was so thoroughly idealistic 
and so genuinely Christian, that it was impossible not to 
respect and admire him even when one failed to agree with 
him. Perhaps it is only fair to add that his absolute sin- 
cerity and straightforwardness prevented . him from adopt- 
ing anything like diplomacy. Diplomacy seemed to him 
too much like compromise and compromise of conviction 
was abhorrent to him. The result was that in these earlier 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 87 

struggles more especially, he may have appeared at times 
to those who differed from him, to be intolerant. In reality 
nothing could be farther from the true spirit of the man. 
Undiplomatic he may have been at times, intolerant never. 
He was ever eager to get at another's point of view and to 
learn from an adversary. The intolerant man is always a 
contentious man. He regards the expression of a difference 
of opinion as a personal insult and always expresses his own 
opinion in such a way as to reflect upon the good sense of 
his neighbor. However deep Spalding's convictions were, 
in debate he always occupied a certain objective attitude 
toward them. The consequence was that debate, which 
he dearly loved, never degenerated into bickering. It was 
an intellectual exercise, never a quarrel. As for his 
lack of diplomacy, it sprang from one of the most beautiful 
traits that a strong nature can be possessed of, a simpHcity 
that was almost childlike. In the deeper convictions of his 
life he was so sure of the truth of his positions and so un- 
consciously supported by the purity of his motives, that he 
failed to realize at times that one could differ from him or 
would mistake his criticisms for personal denunciation. 
He was apparently totally unaware of the way others who 
did not agree with him might construe his utterances. Some 
of his friends wondered at his audacity when they should 
have admired his simple truthfulness. Maturer years filled 
out the finer proportions of his mind as it did the angularity 
of his body, but he never lost the enthusiasm of his convic- 
tions, which so often we find associated only with youth. 
To those who knew Spalding intimately his lovableness 
was always as clearly a basic element in his character as his 
strength. But as his strength became more assured, his 
convictions deeper and more balanced, the innate gentle- 
ness of his spirit shone through his strength more conspic- 



88 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

uously. This did not lessen his strength, it made it more 
serviceable. 

As the industrial problem became more clearly delineated 
to his own mind he sought to inform his people through 
sermons as to its significance and meaning. He gave a 
series of addresses on Social Problems, Charity, Wages, 
Bargaining, Speculation, Gambling, Extravagance and 
Social Equality. The Ten Commandments, in their appli- 
cation to modern life, formed a second series of sermons 
in which he sought to enlighten and guide his people. He 
dealt also with the family life, the social life and the 
business life, from the social point of view. He was read- 
ing at this time Dean Hodges' "Faith and Social Service,'* 
which had just appeared, and was learning of the Christian 
SociaHsts of England through the Life of Charles Kingsley. 
He worked up a lecture on the " Workingmen of the Middle 
Ages." The sermons which he was preaching disturbed 
many of the people of St. Paul's, and there was a demand 
that he should preach the "Simple Gospel"; that is, the 
Gospel which did not raise perplexing questions for the 
conscience of the employer and the men and women who 
live on profits, rent and interest. 

To His Mother 

Oct. 19, 1899. 

I have started a class for the study of social science. We 
are to meet on Tuesdays and are to read Giddings' Sociology. 
We had seven to begin with and I think it will be a helpful thing. 
They were all working-men but I hope some of the other class 
will come in soon and that it may help to bring a little better 
understanding between capital and labor, for some of the firms 
here are just on the verge of strikes, and it is dreadful how soon 
a man who is getting ahead begins to look upon the men who 
work for him as so much machinery. 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 89 

Everyone is getting rich apparently in Erie, though I am sure 
it will not be long before there will be terrible trouble with the 
labor question. As the men become more intelligent they want 
more wages and they need more and they ought to have more. 

If there is anything I pray to be delivered from it is the love 
of money, and there are lots of people who have it. A. is getting 
really a sad object. He does want to get rich so badly. It is 
awful the way people estimate everything in terms of money. 

I am having quite a controversy with Mr. Taylor of Warren 
on Socialism. He is out of sorts with it, for the crowd down 
there who are interested in Socialism are unChristian and out of 
all patience with Christianity. I do not know very much about 
Socialism. I notice that in the Outlook James Bryce, in noting 
the great books of the century, puts down Marx's Capital as 
one which has by no means spent its force. 

To His Sister 

Oct. I, 1900. 

I really do not know what to do about the Church History. 
I put a lot of time on it, at least four hours of solid work, and 
there are only a very few come. It is of course well for me to 
review my Chiurch History and it is very interesting for I always 
loved history, but I feel I might be putting that much time on 
more important things. Still, it enables me to do something for 
some of those society people who are a part of my flock and 
yet whom otherwise I would not be doing anything for as they 
never come to any religious services except funerals. 

The conditions of labor under the present system are dread- 
fully hard and the rich seem to be as much injured as the poor. 

I am going to vote for Bryan because I believe he is honest 

and independent and progressive. But to say with Dr. that 

he is socialistic is absurd. He is an old fashioned Democrat 
who believes in downing the trusts in the interest of private com- 
petition. All the Socialists here are opposed to him as bitterly 
as they are to McEinley. I confess I think there is a principle 
at stake in the imperialist policy. We ought not to have colonies ; 



go FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

a republic cannot have subjects. And we have too much to do 
at home to think we can do more outside. It's like a woman 
with a big family of uncared for children adopting some more. 

I guess I told you that I asked Lyman Abbott why the Outlook 
didn't have a series of articles on "America's Working Churches" 
like Spahr's article on "America's Working People," the idea 
being to send a good observer into typical places to find out the 
most successful church and then tell its methods, etc. Dr. 
Abbott thanked me for the suggestion, as interesting and valu- 
able, and hopes to carry out the plan which I have outlined. 

We have been reading St. Francis aloud after breakfast and 
are nearly through it. It is certainly beautiful and I am much 
obliged to you for sending it to me. I expect that's the way 
one ought to live but the hard thing is to interpret into modern 
life just that spirit of absolute self-sacrifice. Nowadays it can 
hardly mean a wandering life, a patched cowl and begging for 
bread. I wonder just what it does mean. Mrs. A. who is a so- 
ciety woman pure and simple, I should think, was talking to 
me about Bishop B. and how much she thought of him. She 
said he still kept true to the old vows of his order, that he wore a 
shabby hat when she last saw him and he said, "You know I 
always buy the cheapest," which seemed to impress her greatly. 
And yet surely there is no harm in trying to keep one's clothing 
good, and in all probability the buying of the cheapest hat meant 
the patronizing of firms which paid the lowest wages and were 
hardest on their employees. It must have been a good deal 
easier, in a way, in simple primitive times to leave all and sell 
and follow, than now, not but that one can equally have the will, 
only it is hard to see the way. It was fine how broad Francis 
was in founding the Brothers of Penitence too. The question 
of celibacy came up in the Church History class a while back and 
I was amazed to see how strongly all women seemed to feel that 
the ideal priest of Crod, the really unselfish man, must be un- 
married. Mrs. C. said that in time of plague only Roman priests 
were ready to stay and bury the dead, as if burying the dead was 
a test of the value of one's service. When I urged that to be 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 9I 

the husband of some woman, or the wife of some man took more 
grace than to be a monk or nun, and to walk the floor with a 
crying baby more Christianity than the vow to poverty, they 
could not answer. And when I argued that the example of a Chris- 
tian family in times of ordinary life even if they did move away 
in time of plague, might be of more value to social righteous- 
ness than the cehbate's solitary selfishness even though he stayed 
when cholera came, they had no answer either. And that makes 
me think how distorted our ideals of man become and how ar- 
tificial our standards of morality. Its very hard for each one to 
see that the state of life into which God has called him gives him 
opportunity of living a truly Christlike life and probably his 
best opportunity. 

I am glad Aunt F. liked Fr. D. Please write me all about him 
and try to find out why he wears the clothes. It seems such a 
cheap way of making yourseK conspicuous. I have often thought 
of making my own bed when a guest at a house, but somehow 
it has seemed to me that if I were the host I'd rather make it than 
have my guest do it, so IVe not done it. You know one of the 
wise things my mother taught me when I was young was to make 
my bed, so I could do it. 

With the increase of wealth in Erie there was an increase 
of luxury. Spalding was told of society women, members of 
St. Paul's, who were in the habit of going to a certain social 
club and there drinking with men, not their husbands, until 
long after midnight. Sunday morning breakfasts and poker 
playing night after night were indulged in by men and 
women who were communicants of his parish. 

To His Father 

Sept. 3, 1900. 

I have been thinking of some plan like this, I'd like to hear 
what you and mother think about it. The St. Agnes Guild is 
made up of the society set. You know the Church History was 



92 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

quite a fad for a year, and it's because that succeeded I have 
thought possibly this would too. Call the Guild together by 
writing a personal invitation to each one and tell them that they 
are social leaders and members of St. Paul's Church and then 
ask them to agree to come to the Parish House every two weeks 
in the winter to listen to a paper which I propose to prepare my- 
self, or get some one else to prepare, on the question which their 
behavior proves them to be doubtful about (i) gambling (2) the 
proper observance of Sunday (3) drinking (4) the theatre (5) 
novels (6) proper treatment of servants (7) gossip (8) purity 
(9) gluttony (10) social responsibility (11) marriage and 
divorce (12) reUgion. One cannot preach on these things in 
church but they need to be spoken of very plainly. I would get 
them all to promise to come. Let the Guild take the responsi- 
bility of making them a success. 

The St. Agnes Guild expressed deep interest in their 
rector's suggestion and all the members agreed to attend and 
to distribute invitations to others. Three patronesses for 
each lecture were chosen and the course started with every 
promise of success. The attendance went far beyond his 
expectations, as many as three hundred being present. 
But the society people for whom the lectures had been 
planned were conspicuously absent ! 

"It is surprising how many Presbyterians come and that 
is the hard thing to understand. They seem really more 
interested than our own people. The Guild who prom- 
ised to come have no principle whatsoever and most of them 
stay away while those poor unconfirmed sectarians are most 
anxious to hear." 

The purpose behind these lectures was to persuade the 
rich and well-to-do to be generous and intelligent and public- 
spirited. Spalding thought that "society" was what it 
was because of the men and women in it, and, if these men 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 93 

and women could be changed, ''society" would become a 
moral force. His failure to reach the rich — through ser- 
mons, lectures, Bible class, personal intercourse — refuted 
his theory. 

To His Mother 

Dec. 9, 1900. 

I preached about Diocesan Missions. The pledge system 
wasn't a very great success, we had about fifty dollars promised 
and about fifty dollars in the plate. I told them very plainly 
how things stood and how ashamed I was that since my coming 
the offerings had very steadily faUen off. This is the record which 
I read to them : In 1896 for Domestic Missions $127.00 ; in 1897 
$100.94; in 1898, $49; in 1899, $33.29. For Diocesan mis- 
sions, in 1896, $476; 1897, $348; 1898, $400; 1899, $300, and 
so far this year $101. 

I wonder what the trouble with me is any way. They all 
pretend to like me and they say I am doing them good and yet 
that's the financial result of my work. They raised my salary 
last Spring and then didn't pay it for three months, and when 
they did pay it went to the bank and borrowed the money, and 
that money hasn't been paid back yet. I told them that they 
had no business to have raised my pay and that I would not take 
it, and so next Sunday, if in the meantime my salary is paid, 
I intend to put back $100, which is the amount of raise they gave 
me since the salary was increased. It isn't that they haven't 
money for they are all Hving most extravagantly, but it is that 
my preaching utterly fails to do them any good, I am afraid. 

So I wonder — as the Lord looks at it — so far as actually 
getting at the people and influencing them, I am not just as 
big a failure as I have always been. First, All Saint's, then 
Jarvis Hall and now St. Paul's. What ought I to do ? It seems 
as if the more I do the less every one else does, as if when I 
worked hard, instead of the others following, the others just 
rested and let me do it all. I wish I could reform. There must 
be a weakness about me, and, if I only knew it, perhaps I could 



94 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

overcome it. This is not in a very thankful strain but I've 
been thinking a lot about things. 

The gym is now doing nicely and that is an encouraging thing. 
Mr. A. has been very generous in that respect and he is going to 
be more so, I think, in the future. Mr. B. makes me tired too. 
We asked him to order the new H5niinals and Prayer Books we 
needed and he brought in a bill for the books at higher cost, 
actually, than the regular retail price, and he regularly charges the 
church more than any other printer in town for all he does. 
And yet he likes to hear me preach ! It doesn't seem as if the 
Lord heard my prayers even, for I pray for them all as well as 
preach to them. If they are such a hardened lot I suppose I 
should feel that Erie was an excellent place for me to be, for there 
is work enough. But I wonder whether some one else couldn't 
do it all better. How did father get them all to working? 

I am getting statistics about conditions in Erie. It's actually 
harder to get facts from the men in our congregation than others. 
X. Y., I really believe pay poorer wages and are harder on their 
girls than almost anywhere else. They actually worked them 
all Thanksgiving and last Sunday. 

While the failure to persuade the rich threw him at first 
into a mood of introspection and sense of failure, he was too 
healthy-minded to remain in that mood. It simply made 
him, as he says, "think a lot." Here were the working 
men and women of his parish, with as good a right as any 
man to the fullness of life, without the ghost of a chance ; 
the possession of ambition and self-respect, which he 
thought would save them, really disqualified them, because, 
even though a few might find their way out of the ranks 
of the manual workers, the system required others to take 
their places, who were not ambitious and therefore dis- 
contented. On the other hand those who reaped the 
profits of the competitive system were morally and spirit- 
ually injured by them. He was therefore forced to the con- 



HIS APPROACH TO THE SOCIAL PROBLEM 95 

elusion that the competitive system is wrong and must be 
made to give way to an industrial system based upon co- 
operation. 

He went to Philadelphia and preached at the annual 
service of the Sons of the American Revolution in Christ 
Church. After the manner of Mr. Sheldon, he wanted to 
find out what Washington would do to-day. The revival 
of military patriotism is largely useless. We do not be- 
lieve in war, we have great peace conventions to do away 
with war and yet we talk about the warrior as if he was the 
only patriot. We want to find out what the spirit of '76 
will do in 1900. And what that spirit demands is indus- 
trial independence, a new social order, Christian SociaHsm. 

To His Mother 

Phila., Dec. 16, 1900. 

I am sending you a copy of my sermon. I suppose you will 
not care much for it because of the socialism, but the sermons 
they sent me as samples were so tame that I thought I'd try to 
get something new and preach the Declaration of Independence. 
I do not think it was inappropriate to the occasion. Indeed I 
believe anything else would have been wrong for me, and I do 
not think the views cranky or peculiar. 

I got your good letter when I returned from the service at Christ 
Church and I tell you it comforted me greatly for I didn't do very 
well. Mr. A. said that Mr. B., the chaplain of the order, was to 
meet me, and he described him so that I should know him but we 
could find no such man, and so after waiting quite a time we took 
a car. In the church I inquired my way to the vestry room and 
there after a while Dr. C. came in, said that the carriage was 
there, etc. but I did not know which and he was sorry I came in 
the car, but I told him not to worry for that was the kind of a 
carriage I usually rode in. But he is the most doleful man I 
ever saw. Dr. S. when he came in was worse yet. He knew 
father, he said, and was glad to see me but I didn't like him a 



96 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

bit. We marched in, keeping six feet apart, which seemed to be 
Dr. C.'s chief concern in ordering the service and the whole read- 
ing of the service and the quibbUng over little points of who should 
go first, etc. made me sick and quite put me out of sorts, only I 
felt that I wanted to preach like fury the simple Gospel. I never 
got into a service which seemed to me so utterly unreal. D. 
read in the most drawling sanctimonious tone and C. was worse 
yet. The result was I did not preach very well. I forgot part 
of the sermon and put in part that wasn't extra good. — The 
reporter wanted my picture for the papers and I gave it to the 
Inquirer. I wonder how much they will print of it. The Rev. 
clergy didn't have much to say about the sermon. Dr. D. said 
he was interested in the subject but though one or two members 
thanked me for it, most abstained from telling untruths. 

When God vouchsafes a new vision of Himself to a man 
He dooms that man to failure. The same voice that bids 
him, **Go tell this people,'' sooner or later reveals to him 
that their ears are heavy and their eyes are shut and they 
will not understand with their heart nor be healed. Every 
prophet of God wants to succeed, but God brings him to 
see that success is none of his business ; he is to speak the 
word God gives him and to do His will. Spalding was such 
a failure. Even his mother did not sympathize with the 
new development of his soul, but earnestly urged him not 
to be peculiar and say queer things. To which gentle 
chiding he replied, "I simply have to be myself. I suppose 
it's a weakness not to be able to get out of myself but I can't 
help it, and it's honest any way." 



IX 

Called to Be a Bishop 

In January, 1902, Frank Spalding had typhoid fever 
and was compelled to abandon his work for a whole year. 
He had overworked. In addition to his two regular ser- 
mons in St. Paul's each week, he was giving two courses of 
weekly lectures, which demanded considerable preparation, 
made on an average twenty-five calls and superintended 
the varied organizations of the parish house. "I wonder if 
all ministers have to drudge so," wrote his sister Sarah, who 
had gone to Erie to live at the rectory and teach. "I tell 
him he ought to have a long vacation for he works longer 
than any laboring-man, at least twelve hours a day, every 
Sunday and most holidays, Christmas, Good Friday; and 
Washington's birthday he worked just the same. Sundays 
alone ought to entitle him to fifty-two days of rest in sum- 
mer. I am afraid of a physical breakdown, he did look and 
was so tired last night." 

Even his strong and athletic constitution could not stand 
such continuous labor with no exercise. The mental ex- 
citement of lecturing and preaching robbed him of sleep. 
Then he fell victim to grippe which was prevalent that 
winter in Erie. At that time his physician advised six 
months rest, but Spalding wrote home from Atlantic City 
"that he didn't know what he was talking about. Your 
first born does not propose to die sooner than he has to 
and he is going to try to go back to Erie and forget if he 

H 97 



98 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

can and try harder than ever before to do his work better, 
taking enough exercise to keep him in good physical shape. 
*^I am going to play golf. It is 2C good way to spend Mon- 
day morning. Though the game seems stupid and silly I 
want to know how it is done seeing other people find it so 
interesting.'' Each time he played golf, however, he foimd 
it "exceedingly stupid and even more absurd. I am afraid 
I am becoming too practical, for I couldn't help thinking 
what nonsense it is this knocking a ball into a hole in very 
scientific style and using as many instruments as it takes 
to cut a man's leg off and doing it all with as much care as 
if it were really vital. But it was a glorious day and the 
fields and trees and sky were beautiful and so I enjoyed it 
and slept well last night but I do not think I shall go crazy 
over the game." The game was gradually crowded out of 
his Ufe by the pressure of work. 

He was in constant demand from all sorts of people. To 
his sister's chidings he quoted Phillips Brooks that the man 
who wanted to see him was the man he wanted to see. 
Judge Walhng of Erie has said that no man took so much 
trouble to follow men up, that he came into court oftener 
than any other minister, and people the Judge thought no 
good at all Spalding would not give up. "I really don't 
think I am often fooled about people but the puzzle is, 
what are you to do with people whom you know are un- 
worthy. I may and usually do know perfectly well that 
a man who comes to ask me for help is a dead beat, but 
aren't dead beats God's children too and so what is to be 
done but to try to do something for them." 

To His Mother 

On last Thursday night the door bell rang. I jumped up and 
went to the door in my night gown and opening it, found a man 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP 99 

who was SO overcome by emotion that he could hardly speak. 
I thought he must be drunk and hesitated about letting him in, 
but decided that was rather mean and so asked him to excuse 
my appearance and to come into the parlor. He came in and 
told me his story ; that he was so desperate about his wife's 
leaving him to go off with one of St. Paul's congregation — never 
mind who — that he was on his way to the lake to drown himself 
but something told him to stop and talk with me — whom he 
didn't know but had only heard of as one who might help him. 
He was a Roman Catholic but his priest hadn't sympathized 
with him in the right way. I had a long talk with him and he 
promised to go home and to bed. He stayed about an hour, two 
to three a.m. 

I had received a message to go to Wellsburg to baptize a dying 
woman and had to start at 7.30. 

I didn't get to bed on Saturday until i a.m. Sunday (an 
Irish bull isn't it) . I had to try to find one of Erie's young gentle- 
men (?). The family were worried because the head of the 
household was away and the young man got drunk and disap- 
peared. He went into the disreputable part of Erie and I got 
a constable and searched for him but did not find him. I saw 
sad things, though they claim to have closed all the bad houses. 

I went to the jail to see T. The Methodist preacher has 
persuaded him that it is his duty to die a Methodist as he had 
been brought up that way and adopt him instead of Spalding as 
his spiritual adviser, and T. thinks he ought to. He was afraid 
Spalding might be offended and said he thought he could get 
me in to see his execution too. When I assured him that it was 
an unspeakable relief to be excused from a duty which I would 
of course assume if I had to, he said he knew I was an unselfish 
man and was relieved to hear me say so. But he said he was not 
quite satisfied with this Methodist minister because he feared 
he was seeking notoriety. I do not myself think the man should 
be hung because he is not mentally strong and because I don't 
believe in capital punishment. 

I think a clergyman's life is full of variety and he has so many 



lOO FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

chances to be useful, that surely he ought to be happy in spite of 
all his personal disappointment. 

To-night I am to have quite a dinner party; have invited 
six young fellows who belong to our church and who work here 
and board in boarding houses. It's the only chance of getting 
better acquainted. 

Spalding was a deputy to the General Convention which 
met in San Francisco in 1901. ^*I wish I could go to the 
General Convention," he wrote home the previous year, 
"and get on the Committee on the General Theological 
Seminary and report the truth of the thing." At San 
Francisco he was put on that committee and labored hard 
to get the truth before the convention. But the Church 
had accepted the Dean's money and the Committee would 
say nothing which reflected upon his administration. 
Spalding had taken no vacation the previous summer, argu- 
ing that the General Convention would be a three weeks' 
rest, but at the close he wrote, "I shall be glad to get to 
Denver and rest. The Convention has done little but it 
has kept us so busy that I have not been able to see any of 
the sights of the place and will have to go away without 
going to Palo Alto or Oakland. To my mind none of the 
fellows are very big men and if the Church of the future is 
to be what it ought to be, greater men than I have seen 
among the young fellows will have to be raised up to take 
the places of the great old men in the convention. Moir 
was easily the best man of the crowd in personality and 
force. Why X. was made a bishop I cannot understand 
except that he is good and pleasant and big. C. D. W. 
says that it might be a good plan to call it the 'oly Katholic 
Church, leaving off the H shows that it's English and spell- 
ing Catholic with a K is most ritualistic. Then it could 
be shortened into the O. K. Church which name would 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP 1 01 

take with the masses. Did I tell you that convention is 
to adjourn on the 17th? This means that I can have a 
first rate visit in Colorado. I find that Convention isn^t 
vacation a bit and 111 be glad of the rest." At the end of 
two weeks he was back in Erie. One month in summer 
was his idea of a rest. 

To His Father 

I am reading Moberly's book on Apostolic Succession and it 
is fast destroying every atom of beHef I ever had in that doc- 
trine. It seems to me to be a reductio ad absurdum of the 
theory which it is intended to support. Every argument would 
be equally valid for the divine right of kings. If the President 
of the United States is a lawful ruler and called of God then, by 
the logic of Mr. Moberly, it would seem to follow that a Congre- 
gational minister must also be and vice versa. If the Congre- 
gational minister is not a lawful minister then the President of 
the United States is not a lawful ruler. The book is proof to me 
that an Englishman is incompetent to write a book on the min- 
istry. He is blinded by the strength and culture and standing 
of the established Church to the value of Dissent. 

After this burst mother will be glad that she assured the 
Rev. M. (who wanted to nominate Frank Spalding as Bishop 
Coadjutor of Colorado) that I was just the right kind of Church- 
man before this letter arrived. But if anybody in Colorado wants 
to know what kind of a Churchman I am you can tell them that 
I'm a Broad Churchman, if you have to use terms at all, for I 
am not a High Churchman or a Low Churchman. However, 
nobody will probably be interested in knowing. 

A. says that the reports that he is not strictly orthodox are 
counting against his getting a call to a big church. If I were 
only orthodox you see who knows! As I do not wish to be a 
bishop I guess I'll preach more heresy. 

I am going to the gym three times a week for I'm going to keep 
in good condition if I can. I suppose if you were here you would 



I02 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

scold me for doing outside things, but surely to speak before the 
Board of Trade on the business man's relation to the morals of 
the town is a chance to do some good and you yourself favored 
my going to the Central Labor Union. Mr. D. wants me to 
speak at the High School, and as the children of our church are 
very anxious to have me speak some morning, I told him I would. 

B, is the last man almost of my acquaintance among clergy- 
men whom I would think of as an active hustling Western mis- 
sionary. A very gentlemanly man he is of course and a fine 
preacher, but the ideal rector of a fashionable city suburban 
parish, used to social life among wealthy society people and not 
to long railroad journeys and mining camps. But of course 
there is no teUing what the new duties may bring out of him. He 
is certainly very conservative in his churchmanship and very 
wise in his speech. He can keep silence even from good words 
as I know from his conduct at the General Convention, but I 
doubted then if his silence was half as much pain and grief to him 
as it was to me. He is that type of a man which I simply can- 
not admire — a smug, sleek rector of a rich, fashionable church 
who writes poetry and keeps solid with the rich and influential, 
and that's more than enough on the subject. 

SalUe, thinking to make me out very sick, sent for Dr. Goeltz 
and he has just been here and gave me some medicine but had 
nothing much to say except to take it easy. Sallie thought I 
was going to have typhoid fever or some dreadful thing. 

Spalding did have typhoid fever. For nine weeks he 
lay in Hamot Hospital, Erie, bearing without complaint 
and even with cheerfulness, its ravages. The family came 
on from Denver to be near h\m through the crisis. His 
father saw Frank twice and talked with him, and then 
himself grew worse (for he had been in failing health 
for several years) and died in his old rectory after an ill- 
ness of three days. Frank was not told of his father's 
death until his own recovery was assured. During his 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP IO3 

illness also his most intimate friend and room-mate in the 
Seminary, Will Moir, died from appendicitis. When able 
to travel he went to Virginia Beach to recuperate, and later 
to Colorado. There he had a relapse which left him with 
serious complications. It was January, 1903, before the 
physician permitted him to return to his work. 

To His Mother 
Easter Day, Virginia Beach, Va. 

How will it seem for you to decipher this handwriting again 
after nine weeks of relief from the strain. I tell you its good to 
be able to do it again even if it is hard for folks to read. We 
had a very nice lay-service here to-day. When I saw it was 
only a lay-reader I felt like offering my services but certain pains 
in my back suggested caution. I suppose Sally wrote you about 
the doctor. He didn't want to charge anything but finally made 
it $75. which he took under protest, so my hospital wiU cost less 
than the $500, I thought. 

Your fine Easter present I am glad to have. I intend every 

day to read one passage. It ought to be very helpful for Bishop 

Temple is such a level headed, sane man and so many books of 

devotion are mystical and beyond me. 

April 10. 

Isn't it fine to be able to write again. I'm sending you Jack 
Ward's splendid letter about Easter at St. Paul's. I wasn't 
needed a bit. Just think of the splendid offerings and services ! 
I was afraid the Sunday School would faU way behind but it 
beat last year's record ! And think of Trinity giving $80. Jack 
has certainly done wonders out there. It makes me long to get 
back to work but there is no use thinking about that until I 
can really walk. I am anxious to get strong enough to carry 
my camera. 

I am very much interested in reading Canon Henson's ser- 
mons on Christian Unity. He hasn't much use for the doctrine 
of Apostolic Succession, and it's a comfort to read it after that 



I04 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

book of Moberly. We have also a novel to which I gave the 
name, "The Grace of Orders." Sarah has read it but I haven't 
got up courage yet. Dr. Goeltz told me that Mr. Sell was telling 
people that I was the hero. Think of being the hero of a love 
story — the hero mind you and not the doleful failure, though not 
all my hope is quite gone. 

April 17. 

The House of Bishops is to elect a bishop of SaUna to-day. 
I wonder what poor man is fated to try to build up the Church 
in the desert of Western Kansas. Wouldn't it be a dreadful 
field, and yet I voted to have it set off. 

I've finished "The Grace of Orders." It's a heavy book but 
at the risk of having to pay extra baggage I shall bring it out. 
The young clergyman is certainly a beauty. 

I am very sorry to be disobedient but I am sure it would make 
me much worse if I did not write you my regular Monday and 
Thursday letters, I am making good progress. This morning 
I weighed 162 lbs. in the light suit I bought in Philadelphia. I 
wonder whether you will object to my wearing such an unclerical 
suit when I am in Denver. We have two Roman priests at the 
hotel and they do not wear clerical vests, and so it must be the 
thing to lay aside the uniform when off duty. 

April 24. 

On Tuesday we went to Hampton Institute which I think is 
about the most wonderful place I ever saw. Mr. Robert Ogden 
of New York who is the Financial President, brought down in 
a private train a party of 80 influential people and for their 
benefit all the departments were in full swing. It is especially 
an industrial school. Over a thousand Negroes and Indians are 
taught farming, brick-laying, lace-making, tailoring, blacksmith- 
ing and everything useful. Dr. McConnell was one of the 
party and when he saw me he came up and insisted on taking 
Sally and me under his wing. He introduced me to a lot of big 
guns — H. W. Mabie, Dr. Percy Grant, Albert Shaw, Walter 
H. Page. He spoke so thoughtfully of father, said he had not 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP IO5 

realized how old he was, thinking of him only as the wonderfully- 
strong and active man of Erie days. 

It was a fine sight to see them march in to dinner, led by their 
own splendid band. W^ went in and heard them sing their 

grace, — 

Thou art great and Thou art Good, 

And we thank Thee for this food. 

By Thy hand must we be fed. 

Give us. Lord, our daily bread. Amen. 

You can imagine how it sounded, — over 800 negro voices. 
In the afternoon we went to hear the speeches. They had short 
reports from graduates of what they were doing. They were 
wonderful. They seemed all of them to be full of the sense of 
service and they told most simply what they were doing for 
their race and how they were prospering. Then came speeches 
from the visitors. Dr. Felix Adler made a most interesting 
speech on the advantage which the students of a disadvantaged 
race have ; then the editor of the Philadelphia Press, Mr. Tal- 
cott Williams, an eloquent man ; and finally a long winded old 
fellow from Boston. 

After dinner we went to the Folk Song Concert. Sallie and 
I both agree that it was the event of our lives. It was an at- 
tempt to reproduce exactly the old days of slavery with its 
songs of religion, toil and lastly of freedom. The lullaby song 
was one of Harry Burleigh's. Sometimes the voices sounded 
like an organ. The basses were marvellous. At the end came 
the Indians, in absolute contrast. Instead of the emotional 
negro, the absolutely calm and collected Indians, and his songs 
the monotony wails we have heard in Colorado. 

I don't think I am the worse for it though I am glad to get 
back to this haven of rest. 

After a rest of several weeks by the Atlantic, Spalding 
went to Denver, where he had a relapse which was more 
serious than the disease. To turn over in bed, he said, 



I06 TRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

was harder than to climb Pike's Peak. He slowly regained 
his physical strength and peace of mind. Not until Jan- 
uary I, 1903, did he return to Erie. Although still some- 
what handicapped by the spinal and internal trouble, he 
took up his work at St. Paul's. 

To His Mother 

St. Paul's Day and the reception on Monday night were the 
best we ever have had. There were lots of people, lots of en- 
thusiasm and good reports. It is splendid the way Jack has 
kept things going. A. B. was here and made himself as agree- 
able as he could. But something is wrong. He talks perpetually 
about himself and his troubles and how people do not appreciate 
him, and never seems to think that he may be a little to blame 
himself. He is a chronic whiner and when I think how much 
whining I have done in the last five years I am ashamed of myself 
and am not going to do it any more. Erie is the best place on 
earth, its people are the most loving and appreciative and F. S. S. 
has more cause for joy and thanksgiving than anybody he knows. 
So if I whine again, you may disown me. A. B . has taught me that. 

Jack's ability and loyalty have been wonderful and I mean 
this week to write to his mother about him and tell her what a 
good son she has. It is fine to feel that one is useful again. 

Dr. Goeltz is going to New York and wants me to go with him 
and consult Dr. Janeway who may know something about my 
back, which while no weaker does not seem to be any stronger. 
I had got quite worked up to going when C. became so bad that 
of course I cannot go unless she improves. However Sarah says 
that you would say that it is all providential, which means, I 
suppose, that to protect me from threatened danger C. has to 
be made sick, which is rather hard on C. 

D. asked me to work for him as professor at the G. T. S. and 
I wrote frankly declining to do it as I did not think him compe- 
tent. He took it kindly and I was very glad as I was afraid he 
would be offended and yet I could do nothing else. 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP IO7 

E. invited me to visit him at Nyack to attend a conference on 
the second coming of Christ, and when I wrote decHning he re- 
plied in a long letter telling me to trust in Jesus. I wrote this 
A.M. telling him he was a religious loafer and ought to get to 
work. 

The people of St. Paul's were indeed appreciative of their 
rector, and in his sickness and absence rallied generously to 
the support of the work. For several years the parish had 
run behind at the rate of $600 to $800 per year and had 
accumulated a floating debt. Spalding took the ground 
that such financial matters were vestry business and said 
nothing about it, though it worried him quite a little for 
there was no excuse for it. Great was his joy, therefore, 
when shortly after his return one of the members of the 
church came to him and said that he was greatly worried 
about the floating debt on the parish and offered to go him- 
self among the people and raise the $3000 needed, if he had 
the rector's consent. By March i he came to Spalding 
with $4000. The debt was paid and $1000 was added to 
the building fund for Trinity Mission which had long 
needed a church. 

To His Mother 

March 3. 

We are all very happy in St. Paul's parish. Dr. Magill has 
succeeded in his attempt and has paid over to me $3955. Just 
think of it! Everybody gave generously, everybody told him 
how much they loved me, everybody is enthusiastic and cheerful. 
If only we can get Trinity built won't it be fine. We have about 
three thousand dollars toward it and no one can object to the 
project on the ground of having a debt on the church. You can 
imagine how happy it makes me for the people have been so 
loving throughout it all and show now they appreciate all that 
IVe tried to do and how unjust I've been in saying they were 
unappreciative. 



I08 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

I am going to preach on "love" in Lent, (i) God's love for 
us (2) our love for God (3) our love for the brethren (4) our love 
for humanity (5) our love of ourselves (6) our love of enemies. 
It is a great relief to have one's subjects selected. It's half the 
battle. 

I went yesterday on invitation of the superintendent of the 
Erie City Iron Works to listen to an arbitration between the 
moulders in Erie and their employers. It was very interesting 
and gave me even more sympathy for the men than I had be- 
fore. It seems to be just a case of which side is the stronger. 
Justice and fairness are not spoken of as results but as simply 
conditions of the battle. 

I suppose Holy Communion on Saints Days is a good thing 
but so few come and those who stay away seem rather the most 
substantial people. Those who come do not represent a very 
virile sort of Christianity. 

At the Diocesan Convention in 1903 Spalding was elected 
a delegate to the Missionary Council, which was to meet in 
Washington in the fall. "I was pleased with that," he 
wrote home, "I think I'd rather go there than to the Gen- 
eral Convention." One of his friends wanted to go to the 
General Convention and, as both could not be elected, 
Spalding withdrew his name and so elected his friend. At 
Washington Spalding met his old friends and classmates 
— Knight, Jones, Wills, Kirkus, Swett, and they lunched 
together and visited the seminary at Alexandria. "Bishop 
Tuttle made one of the greatest speeches lever heard. 
Justice Brewer spoke eloquently on the Home Missionary 
as a Patriot, and Bishop Restarick made one of the finest 
speeches on his work. The President shook hands very 
cordially and Mrs. Roosevelt looked very sweet and pleas- 
ant. It's fine seeing the old fellows and hearing all the 
great men. Wasn't it dreadfully sad about Bishop Leon- 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP lOQ 

ard. What a job ahead of some poor man to take his place, 
for it always seemed to me a particularly hard field." Little 
did he dream that he would be asked, before another year 
had passed, to take that very difficult field. 

Frank Spalding felt that he was a failure in reaching men 
with the Gospel. He was himself manly, his preaching 
was intellectual rather than emotional and yet dealt with 
life and its practical problems, he was human and genuine, 
simple and straightforward, without the least artificiality 
and conventionality. And yet, with a humble opinion of 
himself and the highest ideals before him, he often felt he 
failed. Or shall we say, men failed to appreciate him ? 
The fact is that many of the most virile men in this genera- 
tion have no use for the Church, and many of the men who 
do attend it prefer a clergyman who acts the part most 
theatrically. His failure to reach men with real religion 
worried Spalding, as many of his letters show. 

To His Mother 

Nov. 28, 1903. 

N. handed me just before I went into church last Sunday a 
list of names of forty men who were supposed to belong to St. 
Paul's with the question, "Why can't you fill those men with 
zeal and enthusiasm for the Church?" He throws that up at 
me constantly and, though I don't think he means it as a hint 
to resign, he shows that he thinks I have failed to meet the real 
problem here. I feel sort of ashamed having come home full of 
enthusiasm for the winter's work and then be made to feel like 
a man butting his head against a stone wall, so early in the 
season. I know you would tell me that Mr. N. isn't the whole 
thing but the trouble is that he is about the only man who will 
stand behind me in real religious work and he keeps sticking pins 
in all the time. 

I am thinking seriously of having a mission and asking 



no FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Fr. Huntington. Perhaps this may arouse the people, for I am 
almost in despair. 

I went to Z. to preach for Mr. X. X. is the greatest dude 
I ever saw. He has the most affected ways. He is about as 
unmanly a man as I know but for all that his church is doing 
splendidly. He has more men out than I can get at St. PauFs. 
He has lots of helpers among the men. I wonder if it is I or 
Erie. Last night E. dropped in and he knows X. and thinks about 
him just as I do. I asked him why I couldn't get the men to 
come to church as well as X. He said it was because I worked 
too hard and did not take time to go among the people socially, 
etc. I wonder if he isn't right. You know, by the society people 
of Erie, I am treated as a complete stranger. When one does 
go and see the poor and the sick and the dying and I seem to have 
plenty of that to do, one gets dreadfully serious and I guess I 
am getting that sort of a reputation and it has separated me from 
the lives of society people and I have little influence over them, 
and yet they need help the worst way. 

Spalding never despaired of solving any problem. He 
sought first of all to see clearly just what was to be solved, 
and then he gave to it his entire attention. He held no 
mission. A mission is frequently the shifting of the clergy- 
man's responsibility to the shoulders of other men, brought 
in for the purpose. And the men who do that sort of in- 
tensive spiritual culture are, for the most part, men who 
dress peculiarly and express the reactionary and traditional 
forces within the Church, though personally full of religious 
zeal and mystical fervor. The mission appeals to certain 
types of men and especially to women, and when the mis- 
sioner has gone the task of the parish minister is increased 
threefold in difficulty. Many people fancy that the suc- 
cess was due to the type of churchmanship of the mis- 
sioner or other external things, and forget that it was the 
personality of the man that counted. Spalding deter- 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP III 

mined to make Lent a time in which to try for men partic- 
ularly and he called upon the Brotherhood of St. Andrew 
to cooperate with him. He solved his problem and men 
came to church in increasing numbers. 

To His Mother 

I've been getting the Lenten cards ready and it is not easy 
after one has been in a place for seven Lents to think of new 
subjects. On Sunday evenings I shall speak on the "Inadequacy 
of Worldly Wisdom," contrasting such Proverbs as "Let well 
enough alone'* with "Be ye perfect," "One good turn deserves 
another" with "Give expecting nothing," "Nothing succeeds 
like success" with "I lay down my life," "Where ignorance is 
bliss, etc." "Grow in grace and in the knowledge." I want to 
make these sermons good for men for the Brotherhood to work 
on. 

I am busy now with my paper for the ministers' meeting. It 
is on miracles and I am afraid you will not like it so I shall not 
send it to you to read. As you said in your last letter you have 
to let rash youth do its own thinking, though I am not very 
young being now nearly 39. Think of reaching but one year of 
40 ! It is my contention that though we might ourselves be- 
lieve in all the miracles just as recorded we have no right to say 
that those who are inclined to explain them in a natural way 
can not be Christians. 

I got a letter from Bishop telling me that A. had really 

failed in B. and been asked to resign. So I wrote him a very 
frank letter telling him that he must not deceive himself into 
thinking that he was an intellectual giant when he was really 
just a simple failure in that kind of work and that he had better 
accept the situation frankly. It made me a httle provoked when 
he wrote as if because he could not believe this and that doctrine 
that therefore they could not be true. It was like a little spy 
glass saying, "Because I can't see those stars the big telescope 
has discovered, they do not exist." 



112 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

In his rectory at Erie, one was always meeting humble 
people, people who seemed to feel at home there. Many 
notable lecturers also spent the night when they visited the 
city. F. Hopkinson Smith, Charles Wagner, the author 
of ^^The Simple Life," Dr. Lyman Abbott, the Dean of Ely 
and other distinguished men were at such times Spalding's 
guests. He frequently presented the lecturer to the audi- 
ence. "I am to introduce Lyman Abbott and am hard at 
work preparing a short and pithy introduction. I think 
I'll say — 

^Ladies and Gentlemen: Some years ago in a book 
which many of us read it was prophesied that the time would 
come when we should not have to go to church or lecture 
hall to hear the words of great preachers or teachers, but 
stay comfortably at home, possibly lying in bed on Sunday 
morning, could by means of telephone or phonograph or 
other instrument to be invented hear and even see the 
preacher in his distant hall. As we read the prophesy I 
think we felt that even should the future give such oppor- 
tunity to us we should want at times at least to see with 
our very eyes the preacher and hear his very voice. In a 
way not thought of by the author of 'Looking Backward' 
has one great teacher fulfilled the prophesy. By means 
of the Outlook Magazine his sound has gone out into all 
lands and his words to the ends of the world and yet I am 
sure, delightful as is the other way of receiving his message, 
we are delighted to hear and see him in the old way. I 
have the honor of introducing Dr. L3niian Abbott.' How 
will that do?" 

To His Mother 

To-night we had a Trinity vestry meeting. They want the 
new church to be a memorial to father, which I thought was 
very nice of them for they proposed it themselves. We have a 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP II3 

fine committee out there and are working up interest among the 
people of that part of the town. 

Yesterday was a fine day and we had good congregations at 
all services. I preached on foreign missions for all I was worth 
in the morning. We sent out letters which the Board furnished 
and got $70. which I thought was pretty good. The text was 
^*The Field is the World," and I tried to prove that not to be 
interested in foreign missions was to be no Christian at all. 

I think we are going to have at least 40 confirmed which will 
make us nearly seventy for the year, which beats our record* 
Every one is most willing that the new church should be a 
memorial to Father. 

For Diocesan Missions we have but $320.00 — we ought to 
give $400. I really do not see how I can get any more out of 
the people for I have begged until I am tired and sick of it. 

The Summer of 1904 Spalding spent in the Rockies, "the 
best place of all.'' In spite of the warning of the previous 
year he took but the month of July for his vacation, and 
was back again in Erie for the first Sunday of August. He 
tells of a baptism in a house of a society family, because of 
the illness of the mother, and then writes, "It seems almost 
wicked for such frivolous people to take such promises. I 
asked A. what he meant by promising to bring the child 
to hear sermons when he never came himself, and I really 
think he saw how inconsistent it was. I have completely 
failed to interest personally in the Church the well-to-do 
people. Alas, Alas." He went to the choir boys' camp and 
there joined in all their sports and told stories around the 
fire at night. He built the Holiday House, paying for most 
of it out of the wedding fees, and putting on the roof with 
his own hands. With September the winter's work began 
in church and parish house. 



114 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

To His Mother 

Oct. 1904. 

I am going to preach five sermons on what Dr. Fairbairn calls 
the "Foundation Pillars for a truly scientific life of Christ.** 
I hope it will instruct the people a little better for some are going 
off to Christian Science. What an advantage a Christian Science 
reader, with a little group whom he can see often, has over the 
busy rector of a big church who simply cannot see all the people 
frequently. I have been wondering how it would be to get up 
a class in Christian theology. It might offset the effect of the 
Christian Science. It means a lot of extra work but I suppose 
that cannot be helped. 

I went to see M. to-day and talked theology. She has many 
doubts about the creed, but after my explanation she is going 
to try the Church a little longer. I also attended a gathering 
of Unitarian preachers, a sort of convocation, and heard a really 
fine paper on the Psychology of Religion. They were a most 
self-satisfied and elegant crowd. 

They seem to be having a grand time in Boston, but I really 
don't think I care much to be there. I got pretty tired of mar- 
riage and divorce in San Francisco. 

Something indeed was happening in Boston, all unknown 
to Frank Spalding, and yet profoundly affecting his future 
career. In the House of Bishops, Bishop Scarborough 
nominated him as missionary bishop of the District of 
Utah. He was really put forward by Rt. Rev. Boyd Vin- 
cent, bishop of Southern Ohio, who was an Erie man and 
had held him as a baby on his knee in the old rectory when 
his father was rector of St. Paul's. Bishop Vincent had 
invited him to become the Dean of St. Paul's Pro-Cathe- 
dral, Cincinnati, in 1901, and knew the work which he was 
doing in Erie. In deference to the wish of Bishop Scar- 
borough, the senior of the two, who was a friend of Frank's 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP II5 

father, Bishop Vincent gave way and seconded the nomi- 
nation. Out of ten nominations he received the majority 
of votes. Before the House of Deputies was informed of 
the choice of the House of Bishops, as frequently happens, 
the information was given to the newspapers, and Spalding 
was told by telegraph of his selection. 

To His Mother 

Oct. 19, 1904. 

Mr. R. telegraphed first and after that the others which I 
enclose. It was all so sudden that I hardly know what to think. 
Of course it must be ratified by the House of Deputies but I 
suppose that will follow. It is just what I didn't want as you 
know, for it is so hard being a bishop, so thankless, and Utah is 
the hardest of them all. You know I don't mean by this that 
I'm afraid of hard work if it's the right sort of hard work, but I 
know from father's life what the hardness of this is. It al- 
ways seemed to me that a missionary bishop's business was to 
preach the Gospel to the regions beyond and not to beg money 
for others to do it, and so if I'm to go it must mean go to stay. 
And they surely didn't elect me because they had any reason to 
think I would be a good beggar. I talked with Mr. M. in Phila- 
delphia a little about Bishop M. and his chief disappointment 
seems to be that "he didn't get the money." 

When his name came before the House of Deputies it 
met with serious opposition. It is the custom of the House, 
when nominations are received, to go into secret session and 
to hear from friends and opponents about the man. Dr. 
Baker, who knew Spalding at Princeton where he had been 
a lay reader in his parish, and Major Reynolds, senior 
warden of St. Paul's and deputy from the Diocese of Pitts- 
burgh, spoke in his favor. Then arose Mr. A. of Denver who 
declared that Mr. Spalding was a good man but that "he did 
not beUeve Moses wrote the Pentateuch nor does he believe 



Il6 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

in the Revelation." Rev. Mr. B., of Nebraska, took the 
platform and said that he understood Mr. Spalding was not 
sound in the faith. Dr. Fiske, of Rhode Island, a ritualist 
and a broad-minded gentleman, assured the House that he 
had heard there might be trouble about Mr. Spalding, and 
so had taken pains to find out, and he could testify that he 
was sound in the faith. Whereupon the gentleman from 
Denver said that he would withdraw his objection. The 
deputy from Nebraska remained obdurate, and Fond du 
Lac follow:ed his lead and voted against confirmation. One 
of the deputies from Pittsburgh wrote Spalding that "a 
few belated cave-dwellers objected to his selection, but as 
for his robbing the Church of the Mosaic authorship of the 
Pentateuch, it was like an accusation of clothes-line stealing 
against the Presiding Bishop. Not half the clergymen in 
the House believe that Moses wrote the Pentateuch." 

The Living Church came out with an editorial, approv- 
ing his election and saying that he was a "broad-minded 
Churchman rather than a Broad Churchman." The peo- 
ple of St. Paul's bewailed his election, declaring that his 
going would be a death blow to their parish, that he was 
too brilliant to go to Utah, that he was too good a 
preacher and ought not to sacrifice himself, as a bishop 
need not be a good preacher. His sister wrote to their 
mother, "When they get Frank in the House of Bishops 
they'll have a new article, one who does not care for 
rings or crosses or robes. The people here are sort of 
stunned and don't want him to go. What do you think? 
Must he accept? Frank would be an ideal bishop, for he 
has had good training and knows what a bishop ought to 
be. It is so nice to have it come as such a surprise, no 
interviews or overtures before hand. Our relatives seem 
to think more of the honor than the Church people here." 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP 1 1 7 

To His Mother 

Oct. 26, 1904. 

I wrote to Bishop Tuttle and asked him several things I 
thought I ought to know before reaching a decision. Bishop 
Leonard, the last thing before he died, signed a mortgage for 
$30,000 on the hospital. Then there is a debt of $5000 on the 
bishop's house. The Bishop and the Dean did not get along 
and the Dean and his friends had a strong party and expected 
that said Dean would be chosen bishop. I asked Bishop Tuttle 
how much money had to be begged in the East and how many 
friends Utah has. 

If I'm to go I'd like to get at it as soon as possible for hang- 
ing on here will be very hard. If the vestry will call A. in my 
place, I feel that everything would-go on nicely. As you know, 
I have felt for some time that I could help St. Paul's by going. 
It was too much Spalding and too Httle the parish and I did not 
seem able to help it. 

The people here are very sorry to have me go. Many who 
have really taken the trouble to come to church assure me that 
I am much too great a preacher to be buried in the deserts of 
Utah. If, however, I hadn't been elected to Salt Lake I am 
given to understand that I might have been elected bishop of 
Central Pennsylvania, and I guess I am better fitted for the West. 

I wish I could feel as you do about bishops, but I don't. I 
never thought much of them as bishops, and I don't see how I 
can think very much of myself. 

It will seem strange to give up pastoral work just when I am 
beginning to know how to help people and become an ecclesias- 
tical peddler, and yet you actually want me to do it. I don't 
quite understand what you see in it. 

Oct. 30. 

I've quite decided to go and I told the vestry last night though 
my formal resignation is not to be given till next week Friday 
when there is a regular vestry meeting. 

I wish St. Thomas' Day wasn't so near Christmas for I al- 



Il8 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ways was fond of that old doubter and it seems necessary to have 

the consecration on a saint's day. I might ask to preach 

though I don't want a man who would waste much time over 
apostolic succession as Bishop Cox did for father. 

It seems that my election was a keen disappointment to the 
Catholic party, though the Living Church comes out hand- 
somely, informed by a young friend of mine who happened to 

be in Milwaukee at the time. He went to see Mr. and 

found him in the dumps because he thought I was a Unitarian, 
etc. and cheered him with the good news that I believed the 
creed ! 

The two things I've done here, preaching and pastoral work, 
are worth little in a bishop, while the things I've failed at, 
money getting and winning workers for the Church, are all 
important. The only reason I'm going is because the Church 
must have a man out there and she has asked me to be that 
man whether I like it or not. And I don't much like it. The 
honor is nothing. The idea that all bishops are equal is only 
amusing. But having burned the bridges behind me there is 
no use belittling the land I must travel through and so I'm 
trying to believe with you that it is a great honor and a grand 
country and a perfect life. 

Nov. 3, 1904. 

How hard it is to do anything for the rich. That part of one's 
life, I suppose, stops when he becomes a bishop. 

Talking with Miss makes me see what a definite step I 

am taking. There are two directions in which a man may grow. 
He may develop as a parish priest and preacher, and hope some- 
time to be rector of a great parish like Dr. Dix or Dr. Hunting- 
ton, or Dr. Floyd Tompkins. Or he may be a bishop and try 
to be a great bishop like father was. The lines of development 
are quite apart. I've been sure for a long time that a bishop 
has definitely to stop running parishes and confine himself to 
shepherding priests or he would be steadily unhappy. Now I've 
so far tried to be the pastor and preacher and I'm changing into 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP II9 

the bishop and administrator and I really wish it had not been so 
determined for I like the first best. But I see the change must 
be made and if I have any preaching gifts they will not hurt me 
as a bishop. 

Nov. 7, 1904. 

I'm going to Princeton on Friday and see the game and forget 
all about being a bishop and Salt Lake and the Mormons and 
all the rest of it, and I don't care who knows it. Then Monday 
I'm going to New York and call at the Missions House. 

Bishop Whitehead says I may have a confirmation before I 
go and perhaps in that way I can get a lot of men and women 
who have been shy. A. made me very happy by telling me that 
he expected to be confirmed. I've been seriously thinking of 
trying to raise $4000 and pay off the Trinity debt and have 
it all clear before I go. It might be good practice for the future 
begging I must do. I have never asked anybody before and 
if I really went at it I might succeed, and it would be great not 
to have father's memorial in the hands of some new man who 
could not feel toward it as I do. 

I'm just prajdng for grace to keep my temper and my self con- 
trol so that I can leave here without any word except of gratitude 
and love. One of the compensations of being a bishop is that 
I shall be absolutely free to speak my own mind and have my 
own views. 

The chief thing about being a bishop seems to be getting a 
ring and a pectoral cross. Of course they are all kind but some- 
how the thing seems so small and petty when you take in all 
those frills. Taylor said the parish would bring forth the best 
robe and put it on me but the clergy proposed to put the ring 
on my finger. I tried to head him off but it seemed to have gone 
too far. I positively declined to accept the pectoral cross. The 
whole thing is rapidly making me sick. One would imagine the 
Acts of the Apostles read, ^'The Holy Ghost said, 'set me apart 
Barnabas and Saul, giving each two sets of robes, a ring and a 
pectoral cross.' " 



I20 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

I'm trying to obey your instructions and let them give me all 
they want to but it is a bitter pill to swallow, and if they let 
me go away without having paid the floating debt on the church 
and helped on a good bit toward Trinity I will feel as if every- 
thing I take from them was Hke robbing the Church. The whole 
thing is ridiculous. I am expected either to pay all the expenses 
of the consecration myself or beg it from my people, so Bishop 
Tuttle says. I shall certainly not beg one penny of it. I guess 
I shall have enough all right, though it will cost a lot. I do hate 
the red tape. My, but I shall be glad when it is all over with. 
May God save me from ever caring for such things. 

Spalding went to Princeton, saw Yale defeat his team, and 
read the lesson next day in the church where he had been 
a lay reader and chorister seventeen years before. He 
visited the Basin where he had conducted service as a stu- 
dent, and, in spite of slush and rain, gathered together two 
children and two adults and preached to them his sermon on 
" God is Light." That night he spent with the boys in a 
college dormitory. He had thrown off old cares and new 
responsibilities and was a boy again. Then he went to 
Cambridge Springs for a few days of quiet preparation. 
Meanwhile, the parish brought forth money as well as 
robes, and paid off the floating debt on the church and the 
$4000 on Trinity, as a sign of their love and appreciation. 

The consecration took place in St. Paul's, Erie, on De- 
cember 14, 1904. His friends, Arthur R. Taylor and E. J. 
Knight (who was his classmate in the seminary), attended 
him, Bishops Whittaker and Talbot were the presenters, 
and Bishops Tuttle, Scarborough and Whitehead the con- 
secrators. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of 
Southern Ohio, who spent no time on apostolic succession, 
but taking as his subject *Hhe Prior Claim and the Larger 
Duty," stressed the apostolic call as a missionary call to 



CALLED TO BE A BISHOP 121 

serve the whole world and bring it to Christ. He reminded 
the parish that twice in the same generation it was offered 
the privilege of giving its rector to the missionary episco- 
pate, a father and a son, almost to the same field. He 
told the people and the bishops present that the missionary- 
bishop had an element of honor not given to the diocesan 
bishop. He is the chosen of the Church in the most repre- 
sentative gathering and is regarded by the Church as her 
true hero. Bishop Vincent said most truly, as all the 
records of the first years of Christianity prove, "A bishop 
is never so truly a bishop, after the apostolic model, as 
when he is a missionary bishop." He told Spalding that 
he was wrong when he said, "I am only a pastor and try 
to be a preacher ; I am not good at raising money," but he 
was right when he said, "If I had not been willing to go, I 
should not have been worthy to stay." The new work 
called him to gather and care for scattered flocks, send them 
shepherds and preach the glad tidings. "Go, then, dear 
brother, in the faith and strength of it all, as your father 
went before you, and as the first Bishop of Utah, here with 
us to-day, went before him. Go ! and never cease to hear 
your Divine Master's reassurance: /Lo! I am with you 
always even to the end.'" 



X 

The Church in Utah 

The missionary district of Utah, where Frank Spalding 
was sent by the Church as its bishop, comprised the State 
of Utah, and parts of Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado. 
From Tonopah, Nevada, the most westerly station, to 
Durango, Col., in the southeast, by the shortest railroad 
route, he had to travel two hundred miles further than 
from Portland, Maine, to Omaha, Nebraska. The travel- 
ing was over all kinds of country, moimtains, sandy deserts, 
sage brush plains and fertile valleys ; and he had to go in 
all sorts of ways, railroads, broad gauge and narrow gauge, 
besides all manner of stage coaches and automobiles. 

Spalding arrived in Salt Lake City, at the beginning of 
the new year, three weeks after his consecration, where 
he received a cordial welcome from the Church people and 
citizens. He straightway set about familiarizing himself 
with the work of the Church in Salt Lake City; which 
consisted of two self-supporting parishes, a well-conducted 
school for girls, Rowland Hall, and a hospital, St. Mark's, 
in need of repairs and heavily in debt. With the three 
Church clergymen of Salt Lake and the physicians on the 
hospital staff and the teachers of Rowland Hall, the new 
bishop was dehghted. The only thing which made him 
homesick was the "Episcopal residence — so empty and 
big and ugly." After Erie, it seemed strange to walk about 
and know nobody. The work seemed to him immense and 

122 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 1 23 

the responsibilities tremendous. "I'll need a lot of pray- 
ing for, if I'm to make it go but I'm going to try." After 
his preliminary survey of the Church in the city Spalding 
set out to visit aU the stations of his district. 

In every town where there was a clergyman he was met 
at train or stage, whatever the hour of his arrival. The 
mornings were spent in visiting every church member, 
the afternoons in holding a conference with vestry or com- 
mittee and the evenings in preaching. In places where 
there was no resident minister he would have as many as 
a dozen baptisms, and frequently confirmations. There 
were towns where the mission had been closed and there he 
would inquire from door to door who had been members 
and bring them together for a Communion Service. In 
communities where there had never been any organization 
of church people he would borrow the use of some church 
building, always generously lent, and gather together the 
Churchmen. On such occasions the Methodist or other 
minister generally read the lessons, and every one present 
was invited to come to the Lord's Table. Spalding re- 
gretted that he could not bring himself to beating a drum on 
the street and when a crowd had collected, preach to them. 
There were three distinct kinds of communities to be 
reached: the Indians on the reservations, the rich farm- 
ing country and the mining camps. 

In the letters from Frank Spalding to his mother, written 
on his valise as he waited for trains or on a hotel bar at 
night, there is a vivid picture of the task of the western 
missionary bishop and of the courageous way in which he 
went about his work. 

Jan. 24, 1905. 

I'm at Echo, sitting on my grip, waiting for the train for Park 
City where I am to preach to-night, spending the day calling on 



124 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

church people. Bishop Tuttle did a lot of good while he was 
bishop pro. tern. 

I got no further when the train, half freight and passenger 
came along. I had as company on the very slow trip a drummer 
and a Mormon, both intelUgent men. The Mormon declared 
that he abominated polygamy and the drummer said he wor- 
shipped no God but the almighty dollar, and wanted to know 
how long I^d been "peddling salvation." 

I called on twenty-five people and have still some others to 
see this morning. They haven't had service since Dean Eddie 
came up last Spring. The little church was crowded last night. 
I baptized one baby yesterday and am to baptize two more after 
the communion service to-day. 

I wonder how long the Board of Missions expects a man to 
live on nothing. It seems a very strange arrangement not even 
to ask if he needs any money but to expect him to pay his con- 
secration expenses, his fare out and his living for three months, 
I think I'll write and find out when some money is coming to me. 

Grand Junction, Col. Jan. 29. 

The little church was crowded with people at both services. 
The people love and respect Lyon. They need a new church 
badly. The Lyons have the dearest little girl and I got on very 
good terms with her by showing her how to swallow a dollar 
and have it come out of my shoe. I'm incUned to think my 
sleight of hand is one of my most valuable gifts. The Lyons 
get only $800 and I'm going to try to persuade the vestry to 
raise him more money for he ought to have it. Last night we 
had a grand reception and the whole town turned out. The 
editor of the paper is a Princeton man. 

EvANSTON, Wyoming, Feb. 6. 

There is a fine church, attractive rectory and splendid parish 
hall here. The women didn't like the last man because he let 
his wife work too hard and the men had no use for him for he 
spent most of his time off hunting with the boys. It's pretty 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 125 

hard to please everybody. It's a small town and a young man 
wouldn't find enough to do, but for a middle aged man and his 
family it would be a fine place in which to settle down and be a 
father to the whole community. 

I travelled with the superintendent of Methodist missions. 
He has 25 clergy in Utah and $16,000 for his work. Think of 
the Church giving me but $4000 ! We certainly do go a great 
deal on our name and on distinguished ancestry. 

Logan, Utah, Feb. 8. 

I've called on all the people. It's a Mormon stronghold, there 

are but a dozen communicants and yet it is in a most fertile valley 

of 20,000 and the town has seven thousand. Here is the Brigham 

Young Academy where they educate young Mormons to go on 

missions. 

Provo, Utah, Feb. 12. : 

We have at this place a shy, timid Irishman studying for or- 
ders, out here for his health with his sister a very bright pretty 
girl. When I arrived at 5.30 p.m. they asked me to have tea 
with them, and I went up supposing at that hour tea was supper 
even though it consisted of tea and crackers. And so I sat and 
talked on till 7.30, when he said with blushes, "Really I must- 
tell you if you don't go to the hotel you won't get any supper." 
I was trying to cheer him up and all I succeeded in doing was to 
keep him from his supper. 

The church is a little box of a place, an old dwelling fixed nicely 
inside. There were 23 out in the morning, 1 1 at Sunday School 
and 29 at night, 12 at Communion. On the way back we met 
the throngs coming out of the Mormon tabernacle. We looked 
into the building, a big hall, sloping floor, gallery and organ and 
choir seats, room for 2000. I tried to encourage the vestry 
committee but only two came to church and they were hopeless. 

Salt Lake, Feb. 17. 

I am to preach at the Cathedral at both services on Sunday. 
I am glad of the chance to preach to a larger congregation and 



126 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

I hope I can do well for a good deal depends on holding the 
interest of these Salt Lake people. 

I find that every one who knows the country thinks this is a 
good time to go to Vernal and the Indians. I go by rail to Price 
and there is a stretch of lo miles by stage to Ft. Duchesne where 
Mr. Hersey meets me. 

Randell, Feb. 27. 

We had grand services at 10. The Indians all came early to 
call on Mr. Hersey, who is a regular hero whom they call Ta-ta- 
put or "Good Talk." I confirmed thirteen, two men and eleven 
girls. I don't know whether they understood me or not, but 
Hersey said to talk as to children, and I did. 

I really think some good was done. Capt. Hall, the agent, 
thinks the results were unusual for my service was just when the 
Indians received their annual payments and this time not a single 
Indian was arrested for drunkenness and usually when they 
get their money there is a good deal of drinking. 

Mr. Hersey has a little infirmary next to his house, but it is 
almost impossible to get sick Indians to come into it. They 
are so superstitious that they think it is sure death to go to 
bed there. The one thing he has accompUshed is the destruc- 
tion of the old custom of burying the child with the dead mother. 
A good many mothers die and they did not know how to bring 
up a motherless infant and besides they said the mother's spirit 
needed it. He has saved some of them and he has cows and 
gives them milk and now they bring the babies to him. 

White Rocks, March 2. 
Hersey drove me here, twenty-five miles in five hours over 
rather bad roads. In the last eight years he has driven one of 
his horses over all kinds of roads and in all sorts of weather 
35,000 miles. Miss Carter and Miss Murray gave us a cordial 
welcome. They have adopted two Httle motherless Indian boys, 
very cunning youngsters. We had service at eight o'clock with 
a good congregation of white people and a few Indians. The 
Indians have just been paid their annuity and they were gam- 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 1 27 

bling it away. They never cheat and never quarrel when they 
lose, but it is a perfect passion with them. 

Bishop Leonard once gave magic lantern pictures of the cru- 
cifixion for the Indians here. They were much moved, but said 
"White man he kill God, we no want his church." And they 
would not have it for years. At two the crowds began to as- 
semble, first the children from the government school, then the 
Indians, old braves and young, squaws and papooses, and dogs. 
It was the biggest gathering they had ever had. The White- 
Rocks Utes are said to be the most uncivilized Indians in the 
United States. There were men and women in the building who 
had taken part in the Meeker massacre. 

Johnnie Reid, a half breed, was interpreter and Charlie Mack, 
an old Ute chief who knows English, helped. We repeated the 
Creed, and Lord's Prayer and some other prayers. Then Mr. 
Hersey spoke to them, Johnnie repeating it in the harsh Ute 
tongue. He told them what the building was for and that it 
was for them as well as for the whites. He told them that, as 
the white man has brought peace and food, so he wanted to tell 
them about God. He told them that if they had a nice clean 
blanket they would not like to have it all muddied and so God 
did not like them to stain the hearts he had made white. Then 
came my turn. Johnnie got along all right until I said, "when 
you hear the rush of the wind and the noise of the thunder you 
think of God as there." It seemed to me that was quite Indian, 
but it was too much for Johnnie and so he asked Charlie Mack to 
do it and Charlie rose and interpreted. They are a stolid lot 
and one can't tell whether they understand or not. After I 
got through, Charlie Mack rose again and made a long speech, 
which Johnnie said was mine over again as much as he could 
remember, for he said it was a good speech and the Indians should 
be made to understand it. It was a most remarkable experience. 

March 5. 
The Indians began to assemble at Mr. Hersey's about nine. 
They quite filled the house, sitting on chairs, until they were 



128 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

occupied and then on the floor. There isn't much conversation. 
Hersey says he and the Indians have a good heart to heart talk 
often by sitting silently for half an hour saying not more than 
twenty words. They haven't much idea of time, having no 
watches, and so it was past ten when we went to church. After 
service, for my special benefit the young men gave an exhibition 
of horsemanship. When they ride ordinarily they have Amer- 
ican saddles or saddles they made themselves, but when they 
race or show off they ride bareback and horse and man seem one. 
It was a Httle like horse racing on Sunday but as H. said they 
were very innocent in their intention to please the new "Big 
Good Words." 

Old Shovenagh came to see us after the service. He wants 
to go to Washington on the delegation to see about the opening 
of the Reservation to white settlers and he has been overlooked. 
He thought since I was such a great man I might have influence. 
Hersey feels that he ought to go, for he is a fine peace loving old 
man, and so we wrote the Captain a letter. On Monday Shov- 
enagh came beaming like a school boy. He had received his 
orders to get ready to go to Washington. He took Mr. H. 
aside and said that when he reached Washington, he would 
tell the President that the "Church very good." And then he 
borrowed $13.00 of Mr. H. to buy a new hat and trousers. Isn't 
that civilized for you? 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake, April 4. 

I'd like to see that letter of Sarah's for she must have drawn 
very largely on her imagination. I did lose my overcoat with a 
good pair of gloves in the pocket. They told me that they found 
it about two miles down stream buried in the sand, that they 
hitched a horse to it and pulled it out and I naturally said I 
really did not care for it and I hope some Indian may dry it out 
and keep warm in it. The real facts are as follows : There were 
three passengers on the stage, myself and two nice men from 
Kansas. I joined them at Mr. Hersey's, they getting on at the 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 1 29 

Fort (Duchesne). We rode comfortably the first 14 miles to 
Ouray where Mr. & Mrs. C. keep a store and are sub Indian 
agents. The river was still high but clear of ice and we had no 
trouble at all crossing in a row boat, indeed I rowed the boat my- 
self. The water had run off the desert a good deal and so the 
road itself wasn't as wet as it had been when we drove the other 
way but in the streams and " washes'' the water was high. It 
got higher toward afternoon when the snow melted fastest. 
There is one wash, usually a dry bar of sand which the road 
crosses three times. It drains a lot of country, however, and 
after a rain there is sometimes quite a stream. Well it was 
full of water but we crossed it twice easily, the water barely 
coming into the wagon. The last crossing is at the dinner 
station called Chipeta after the squaw of old chief Ouray. Here 
the water was running strong but the stream was wider and 
divided by an island into two parts. We felt it was risky to 
cross with two horses and the buckboard we had been using, so 
we borrowed from an Indian a big Bain wagon and we fastened 
on four horses. The driver held the reins and took another 
fellow to whip, the mail was thrown on behind and we stood on 
it and I held my grip for fear the water might come into the 
wagon. We went famously half way to the httle island, the 
water barely coining into the wagon. Then we started over the 
other stream. It was deeper and swifter and the current had so 
washed the other bank that it was very steep and the horse 
balked. The water was about six inches deeper than the top of 
the wagon box which caught the full force of the current and 
turned over throwing us all out into the water. I hung on to 
my grip all right and lit on my feet, one of the men scrambled 
out on the farther bank and one of them got mixed up with the 
wagon and he did have a hard time for he lost his head and 
was carried downstream perhaps 150 yards when the Indians rode 
in and got him out, wet but not hurt. I waded to the Island. 
It was no more dangerous than trout fishing. I first thought I'd 
just go back across the smaller stream to the house and dry up 
and so I shouted to the other passenger, whose name was H. 



130 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

to go downstream to where the drivers were for they had scrambled 
on that side and let the Indians help him across. But he said 
nothing would make him cross again but that he was going to 
walk to the next station, Bonanza. As that was on ten miles 
at least without a horse between it did not seem right to let him 
go alone and so I got an Indian to fasten two lariettes together 
and throw me the rope. He did it splendidly and I wrapped 
it around my waist and waded across. It was pretty swift near 
the bank but with the help of the rope I made it easily. Of 
course I left my bag and overshoes on the island to be brought 
on by the stage. Then H. and I struck a lively pace for Bo- 
nanza. The road was, however, wet and muddy most of the time 
and we had to wade four streams over knee deep, but the brisk 
walk kept us fairly warm. In the meantime they had telephoned 
to Bonanza for a wagon to meet us and after we had travelled 
about five miles we did meet a team. At first I thought we had 
better keep walking as it was getting cold and dark (the trip over 
was in broad day light) but the road got so wet and muddy 
and snowy that we climbed in and rode the rest of the way. 
There was a stone house at Bonanza and a stove. Here we did 
nearly have an accident for in his zeal to make the fire burn the 
man threw in some gasoline and it nearly blew up the stove. Well 
I took off my clothing and by 11.30 had my underwear dry. So 
I slept in that, on a bunk with plenty of bedding the rest of the 
night. Next morning we got a good breakfast, for in another 
part of the house the man's wife lived, and we found the rest 
of our things were dry so we rode on to White River, got a team 
there and made Dragon and the R. R. by 4 p.m. I arranged 
for service and had a fine crowd out at 8 p.m. and the next morn- 
ing came on to Salt Lake feeling absolutely none the worse in 
any way. Now please remember that this road is unpleasant 
only in time of high water. The unusual amount of snow this 
year made the trouble. Usually it is a beautiful ride. 

One hundred miles by stage to the railroad brought the 
new bishop out of the Uintah country. He next visited the 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH I31 

stations in Western Colorado which took him over ground 
his father had sown with seed, and then hurried to Salt 
Lake. After a few days, spent in writing letters, he was off 
again, this time going West to Nevada. One of the letters 
was from his successor at St. PauFs asking advice. "A. 
wrote me a nice though rather pious letter asking my ad- 
vice. IVe just written telHng him I'd help him in any way 
in my power but saying that I thought he better go it blind, 
that he ought not to try to do just as I had done as the 
parish needed a leader not an imitator, but that I hoped 
he'd not decide hastily that it was over organized, for all 
the societies seemed fitted to the needs, that the choir was 
really a big boy's club, etc." 

To His Mother 

This is the most lively mining camp in the world, like Lead- 
ville in 1879 and Cripple Creek in 1890. I got in after a long 
trip this A.M. at one, and luckily got a bed, in the Annex, a neat 
place with six beds, curtained off in a tent with board sides. I 
am writing this at the bar of the Palace Hotel, there being no 
other writing room. There isn't a tree in sight and yet the bare 
hills are beautiful. Two of the Poes, of Princeton foot-ball 
fame, are here. Johnnie Poe will help me Sunday in the choir 
and pass the plate. 

I waited in line at the post-office and got my mail. The P. O. 
is in a bad way. Nobody wants to be postmaster. It only 
pays $30.00 a month rent and the building is in demand at 
$175. The government only pays $70, and nobody will work 
for less than $4.00 a day. So the postmaster has resigned and 
wants to be relieved for he is steadily growing poorer. 

April 2. 

I went to the hall early to get the seats arranged. About fifty 
orders met there. It is strange how much sooner these societies 



132 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

get a hold than the Church. The people began to come early 
and at the service there were many more women than men. 
Most all knew the places and responded. There were twenty- 
two at communion. In the evening we had a big crowd and 
lots of men. Johnnie passed the hat and the offering was $27.06. 

The wife of the auditor of the railroad is building a club house ; 
she proposes to raise $10,000 and build a fine reading room and 
gymnasiiun, and the project seems a go. 

One meets all the while graduates of Whitaker's Hall. It is 
a great proof that the Church school does far reaching good. 

Spalding visited Goldfield in an auto where he looked up 
all the people whose names had been given him and found 
many more. People told him the town would last but he 
had suspicions. The old deserted camps were most forlorn 
and he was puzzled to know what to do for them. Places 
where millions of dollars had been taken out of the ground 
he found almost deserted, with their greater smelters 
rusting and rotting. After a church has been built, if the 
vein of gold ends the people pack up and move to the next 
strike. Tonopah, Goldfield, and Bull Frog were new places, 
with 10,000 people, and many idle men, crowded streets, 
saloons and gambling, few good buildings and many tents. 

Las Vegas, Nev. 

You ought to see this hotel. A long tent with a double row 
of beds down the middle aisle and canvas alcoves next to the 
wall. Mine is in the corner. 

There is water here and there will probably always be a town. 
If we can get land for a church we ought to, I suppose. If 
Nevada only had water ! Right in the midst of the Sage brush 
desert you come upon the most beautiful meadows and ranches. 
It is a climate which will produce most everything, water only 
needed. 

I wonder whether it is moral cowardice or a decent modesty 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 1 33 

which prevents me from standing on the corner, gathering a 
crowd for a while by beating a drimi or yelling, and then preach- 
ing like the Salvation Army people. I have spent the time call- 
ing. I found a Presbyterian who runs the Mercantile Com- 
pany. He said they had had two Presbyterian ministers, both 
poor, and he had written the superintendent to do better next 
time. The first man had a pain and thought it was the bubonic 
plague and ran away. The next man preached against the 
Masons and was starved out. 

It's wonderful how simply and gladly they talk about religion. 
Only one man said gruffly, "Religion is a thing that never gave 
me any trouble." When I told him it never gave me any either 
and that I did not think it was for that purpose, he cheered up 
and ''reckoned he was a sort of a Unitarian." At last after look- 
ing every where I found the poor old dilapidated Methodist 
minister. He ought to be resting in riches and honor instead 
of being in that doleful place. He said it had been a real treat 
to talk to another minister. If I can't get Church clergymen out 
here I'm going to be some good to the others. Isn't that the 
real meaning of Catholic? 

I asked the proprietor of the hotel whether he didn't think it 
would be wiser to take the price tags off the sheets and pillow 
cases, then one would think they had been washed within a 
month. "You are most unreasonable," he replied, "when we 
put those sheets on the beds a month ago they took the place 
of blankets that hadn't been washed for eight months. You 
don't know civilization when you see it." But he wouldn't 
charge a cent for my board and lodging. 

Caliente, Nevada. 

I came here in the afternoon and Mr. Bentley, the Methodist 
parson, showed me all over the town. There is a hot spring and 
the part God made is fine though man's improvements are vile. 
It is about the most miserable place I was ever fated to spend 
time in. Perhaps it is a comfort to know that I had seen the 
limit. The editor of the CaHente Express, wrote an article awhile 



134 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ago entitled ''What Caliente Needs." There were a church, 
city water works, a fire department and a system of sprinkling the 
streets to cool things off, and a bath house. A friend of his in 
Montana, also an editor, commented on this editorial as follows. 
"We beg to call to the attention of the editor of the Express that 
the needs of Caliente are identical with the needs of hell." 

I spent the night in the Culverwell House. As the landlady 
said, it wasn^t just arranged for a hotel because the only way 
to get in and out of our room without going through Mr. and 

Mrs. 's room was through the window. All night Mr. and 

Mrs. conversed and it was hard to realize that any par- 
tition was between. Such a Caudle lecture she did give him! 
Finally he arose and swore by heaven that he was innocent and 
if she didn't shut up he would blow his brains out, etc. All of 
which was not conducive to sleep. 

I was glad to start for Delamar, thirty-two miles away. And 

indeed the ride was so beautiful that I quite forgot the . 

First we went through a most interesting canyon. Curious 
conglomerate rocky walls hundreds of feet high with the strata 
tipped up all sorts of ways. Then out on the high ground with 
wonderful views of distant blue mountains and into stretches of 
white sandy desert. We went over to the Hot Spring for new 
horses and water. The stable made me instantly think of 
Bethlehem for its a cave running into the hillside, propped up 
with rough timbers, looking for all the world like the picture in 
the Chapel in Erie. It runs back about one hundred feet and 
at the end is a most delicious spring of the purest, coldest water. 
The man who dug it all hoped to find water enough to irrigate a 
ranch but there wasn't enough, barely enough to water stock 
and he committed suicide, going mad with the loneHness of the 
place. With the new horses we climbed the next divide and 
saw even more wonderful things. I counted forty- three different 
kinds of flowers growing in that desert and some I'd never seen 
before, are especially beautiful like a lady-slipper with the most 
delicate perfume. As you go over the last hill but one, you come 
out into a forest almost of yucca palms, they call them. 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 135 

The Bishop^s next trip, the fourth task he had set him- 
self, was to Northwestern Colorado. 

Rifle, Colo. June 23. 

What a shame it is that our Church got so behind in all these 
places. There is a flourishing Methodist and two CampbelUte 
Churches and really no room for ours. It does not seem right 
to put a church in where there is too hard work supporting those 
already struggling. There is no chance to have a service in 
Rifle this time, but next time I hope I can, for it is a good thing for 
the Church to be seen and heard once in awhile. 

There is an amusing old man here who is trying to get money 
to establish a grand Consiunptive Home at SaUda, Colo. He is 
trying to raise $50,000 by selling at fifty cents apiece an engraved 
souvenir of himself on Abraham Lincoln — Lincoln, the De- 
stroyer of the Black Scourge and B. the Destroyer of the White 
Scourge of consmnption. He told me that he was in the theatre 
in Washington when Lincoln was killed, helped carry him out, 
saw a drop of blood fall on a program, picked it up and saved it. 
The souvenir has a picture of this blood drop too. He told me 
that book learning is no good in preaching, only the simple word 
from the heart. *^But if yer preach, do it so that you'll bHster 
'em. Nothing else will help them." 

Meeker, June 26. 

The stage started at eight, with a nice young driver, a hard- 
ware drummer and a young woman, perhaps a school teacher. 
The driver talked to the four horses in the usual affectionately 
blasphemous way. We reached Meeker at 5.20 and Mr. George 
and Victor Moulton met me. 

The church is beautiful and the music really wonderful. A 
Mr. Ritz, an Englishman, is choirmaster and the voices were 
fine. They sang **0 Taste and See" in the morning and "O 
Rest in the Lord" and ^*As pants the heart" at night, and did 
it aU very well. We had lots of work, early celebration, Sunday 
School and talk to children. Morning Prayer and sermon, 
service at four with sermon, and confirmation at night. Twelve 



136 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

boys and two girls, five pairs of brothers and two of sisters. Mr. 
George is very proud of having more boys than girls in his school. 
I think we also called on nearly every person in town. I got 
away pretty tired. We had splendid meetings, however, and 
all are encouraged. 

XX Ranch, Arial, Colo. 

Mr. lies with whom I am stopping, is a thinker and saves up 
hard questions for the Bishop. We have been discussing the 
resurrection of the body and the Virgin birth and the credibiUty 
of the Gospels, etc., etc. 

There was a murder down the road night before last. A man 
named Wright was killed. The stage driver said it served him 
right for he was "awful disagreeable.^^ I have learned that the 
county officials have visited the spot and decided that the man 
was shot, that they don't know who shot him and that they don't 
think it is worth while finding out. But Mr. lies agrees with 
me that for the honor of the county more investigation should 
be made. 

This is a regular ranch, a cattle ranch, with many cowboys 
about. The house is a dirt-covered log cabin. Every body 
helps cook and wash dishes, and they are very hospitable. The 
people like to have their guests talk a good deal to them and 
so writing is not easy. I must stop and be pleasant. 

Hayden, Colo. 

You are to admire this hand bill for I did it myself. The printer 
wasn't in town and Mr. Wood let me use the type and I did as 
well as the rather limited assortment would permit. It's won- 
derful how all one has learned, even in fun, comes in handy some 
time. 

The Yampa or Bear River, for Yampa is Indian for bear, is 
a big slowly flowing stream, and aU'along the valley are ranches, 
some of them very fine — "Richmen's Hobbies." Thompson, 
the stage driver, said even the mosquitoes had a pedigree. He 
also told me about the people I'm to meet. If they were ap- 



THE CHimCH IN UTAH I37 

proved by him he calls them ''real common." Mr. P., he said, 
was "real common, just as common as an old pair of shoes." 

We had a church quite well filled and a brother of the man I 
was good to in the hospital helped get the crowd. You see how 
far reaching good is. Mr. Heyse, the Congregational minister, 
gave me the church very willingly. The Congregationalists 
boast that they are no sect or denomination but just a collection 
of Christian people of all churches. I wish we could only make 
them see that such an idea is impossible except in theory, for all 
the thinking and teaching is thrown on one man, while the use 
of the Prayer Book with its cathoHc teaching and its accumulated 
experience of the reHgious Hfe of the past is a protection from 
sectarianism, not a mock of it ; the difficulty is that so many of 
our own men fail to see this and in spite of the Prayer Book are 
sectarian. I consider that an extreme rituaUst, for example, is 
just as sectarian in his whole spirit as a Seventh Day Adventist. 

I leave for Steamboat at noon — thirty miles more — which 
will make one hundred and forty-eight miles from the railroad. 

Steamboat Springs, 
July 5, 1905. 

The only part of the road that wasn't dusty was when we forded 
the Elk River and that was quite exciting for the water was 
high and swift and the river quite wide. The editor of the 
Routt Co. RepubHcan was a passenger and was very interest- 
ing, knowing all the news of the world and all the wonderful re- 
sources of the country. Upon the coming of the raUroad every- 
thing depends and that is the sole topic of conversation. Where 
will it run, how soon will it be built, etc., etc. 

It is nice to be in a house where napkins are clean and one has 
silver things. I had a fine sleep in a clean hotel bed. 

The Methodist minister is very kind and I held services all 
to-day. I preached horribly, but what is one to do when on the 
front row are three deaf men with hands to their ears. Nor 
can I get quite used to noisy babies. The result was I tired my- 
self all out shouting. 



138 FRANEXIN SPENCER SPALDING 

I spent Saturday calling on the few Church people. It seems 
so wicked that our Church should have held the first services in 
this town and in most of the towns along this river, and now 
be left behind by even the Seventh Day Adventists. There 
are about ten communicants and they represent Httle financial 
strength. As one woman expressed it, ^^The town is badly over- 
churched now.'^ 

Both the Methodist and Congregationalist preachers are 
cordial and broad-minded, so I can have a church whenever I 
come here. I'll have quite a tale to tell you when I go East. 
There is a man here who used to be a hard-drinking, fighting, 
gambling cow-boy, who was converted some years ago and seems 
to control the religious life of the district. He has started sev- 
eral chapels and his followers have gone to all sorts of extremes 
— Holy Rollers, Perfectionists, etc. I wonder if that sort of 
thing isn't characteristic of every new country. But think how 
much reHgious loss might have been saved if the Church would 
only do her duty. 

We went to the Grove by the river to hear the Fourth of July 
exercises. Brother Campbell of the Christians was to pray and 
Bro. Travis of the Methodists to give the oration, but Brother 
C. didn't appear and Brother T. asked me if I would pray or if 
he should pray and I should speak. I told him I'd rather speak 
if I had my choice though in a pinch I could pray, — but I hoped 
I'd get out of it. However, he prayed and prayed very well 
too, I suspect getting in a good deal of his speech under the form 
of praise and thanksgiving. The presiding officer then said, 
*' Ladies and Gentlemen, you remember the story of the old 
maid who prayed for a husband, and an owl in a tree cried — 
*who — who,' and she thinking it was an answer to her prayer 
said, *0h good Lord anybody.' Since poor Brother Campbell 
who was to have spoken is also away, it is a question of anybody. 
And I take pleasure in introducing Bishop Spalding who will 
address you." As there was no help for it, I mounted the plat- 
form, thanking my stars that grandmother had been patriotic 
and given me a five dollar gold piece for learning the Declaration 



THE CHXTRCH IN UTAH I39 

of Independence, which I could recite until I got my wits col- 
lected, and then I waved the stars and stripes quite gaily be- 
fore it was over. 

Yampa, July 5. 

I was the only passenger for quite a way. The stage driver, 
called Lou, was not much of a conversationaHst except to his 
horses, to one of which he gave much attention, saying that 
he had a "thick skin and a short memory." I was humming to 
myself and he said, ''sing a song to pass the time away." I 
protested that I didn't know any but he said, "give me one of 
them reHgious songs. Course you can't do it as good as if it 
was in a house but I like to hear it just the same." So I caroled 
lustily while we pulled up a long hill when he said, the going 
would have to be slow and quiet. 

Going over what is called Yellow Jacket Pass the flowers were 
simply wonderful. The colimibine seemed three feet tall and 
wonderfully large and beautiful ; and so many wild roses that the 
air was sweet with them. 

We had service at 10.30 and there were eight communicants 
and I confirmed a girl whom, strange to say, I had baptized in 
Central City. 

Montrose, July 9. 

We drove to Olathe a new town of perhaps fifty or one hundred 
inhabitants and two churches, a Baptist and a "Christian 
Unions," of which I had never heard before. The pastor of the 
Christian Unions runs a big ranch too and was riding the ditch ; 
but we had a nice call on his wife. She said we could use their 
* church whenever we wanted to. She asked if our Church was 
the Methodist Episcopal and when we said no but the old and 
original Episcopal, she was much puzzled ; she said that she had 
never heard of that Church before ! When we reached the 
Baptists he was conducting a Bible Class to study the Sunday 
School lesson. There were four present and they invited us to 
join, which we did, and they asked us to give our opinion of the 
passage under consideration in which the Lord gives to Hezekiah 



I40 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

the sign of the shadow going back ten degrees on the dial of 
Ahaz. Not an easy subject though the old man had a very in- 
teresting explanation based on sun dials, etc. which he had seen. 

Had I known that my mother was going to send me with her 
approval a clipping by T. K. Cheyne, who is the most radical of 
the Higher Critics, I would have told them that the whole story 
was probably an idle fairy tale, written many centuries later. 

The church here is beautiful and the people like Lyon. He 
has certainly worked hard. He laid the floor and did a lot of 
the carpenter work with his own hands. It is necessary if a 
man is to be contented out in these little places that he be pleased 
with small things, and yet he must be a big enough man not to 
be satisfied with them, and it is a trouble to find that combination. 

Is there a place in Denver where a little brass tablet can be 
made? I'd like to have this for father's pulpit in Erie, just his 
simple name. I do not care for Rt. Rev. and D.D. 

"In loving memory of John FrankHn Spalding, a preacher of 
Christ and His Righteousness. He founded this church and 
lived for its members." 

To His Mother 

D. & R. G. R. R., July 14, 1905. 

The people of Mancos are easily the most amusing folk I've 
so far met. You know the town isn't far from the cliff dwellers 
and I guess the present inhabitants have rubbed off some of the 
queerness from their progenitors. Everybody in the town is 
jealous of every body else. There isn't any church, they do 
not own a foot of land and will need every cent they can scrape 
together to buy land. But Mrs. A. has made up her mind that 
a memorial window comes first and she is raising money for it ! 

Mrs. B. said, "We all know Mrs. A. and of course we make 
allowance." Mrs. A. has already told me that Mrs. B.'s father 
had died in an insane asylum so that nobody took her seriously. 
Nobody remarks nowadays, "See how these Christians love one 
another," but instead, "Watch these church members scrap." 

I hurried to the hall after dinner and put on my robes in the 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 141 

open before the place was full. A boy came saying that Mr. 
D., who was to have ushered, was hunting his cow which had 
strayed away. So behold me in Episcopal vestments, ushering 
the people, passing books, husthng chairs from one end of the 
room to the other, and failing to raise windows. I must have 
preached a remarkable sermon, for a Methodist said it was a 
regular Methodist sermon and a Roman Catholic declared it 
was a regular Roman Catholic sermon. Mr. E. said he would 
give a dollar every time *'we put a sermon on in Mancos." 

I have an idea for an article on the Sunday question. I'm 
afraid my mother might not think it orthodox though. This 
is my proposition. It is no longer possible to combine a day of 
rest and a day of worship. In the rush of modern life the rest 
day mostly consists of pleasure and recreation, which are in- 
compatible with reUgion. On the other hand we are to-day hon- 
est and search for motives. We discover that what we have 
called reHgion was rather pleasure or business as the case may be. 
Most men are nearer to God in their work than in their play. 
A working day is more of a religious day than play days. The 
special services of the revivalist. Brotherhood noon-day meet- 
ings, Phillips Brooks in old Trinity, all prove it. The con- 
clusion is that the Church must provide new ways of feeding 
souls, ways closer alHed to work than to play. And when we 
come to the Bible we find that Jesus and St. Paul both paid little 
attention to days. The sacrament is a meal. *'I must work 
the works of him that sent me." ''Whatsoever ye do^ do all to 
the glory of God." What do you think of that? I have been 
talking rehgion to a lot of men and I am convinced that it con- 
sists with them far more in honesty, industry, working hard for 
wife and children than it does in hearing sermons or prayers. 
Indeed the motives which make many of them belong to the 
Church will not bear close examination. 

Oh ! but the country is beautiful. The other night going into 
Telluride was simply marvellous. The green of all shades, the 
great red cliff, the snowy part of the San Juan range — so sharp 
and gray and white, the blue sky and the snow white clouds. 



142 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

A wonderful afterglow and all shading into the dull silver of 
the moonlight. There E. isn't that quite poetic? 

His next trip was into Northern Nevada where he had 
work among the ranches. 

^ Clover Valley, Nevada, Oct. 9. 

Well, it is a poor httle town which makes one want understand- 
ingly to call it "Gk)d forsaken." I dined with Dr. Olmstead 
who doctors there for miles around. The soul doctor was 
starved out last week and the only church — a Presbyterian — 
is closed. They seemed glad to see a new man. This vaUey is 
about twenty miles wide and 30 long with a strip of three miles 
wide which will grow anything. We stopped at all the ranches 
along the way to say, '^ How do you do." Our's is the only 
mission and all the people are in some degree connected with the 
Church. We passed the Hall, built by the community for all 
sorts of gatherings including Sunday School and Church. It is 
beautifully placed. Behind, the great ragged, jagged mountains 
rise perhaps to a height of twelve thousand feet and in front lies 
the broad valley. It is all bare now but must have been won- 
derful with the green alfalfa and the waving grain. 

I came at rather a bad time for the cattle buyer has just come 
and the men were busy rounding up the cattle. However, there 
were about fifty out, including children and two babies who 
never made a sound. The singing was fine. They have a little 
organ that shuts up into a box, for the mice and rats eat the in- 
side out of the other kind. After church with a lot of guests 
we went home to the typical Sunday dinner — chicken, cake 
and jellies. 

In the afternoon Mr. Weeks and I went to the round-up. I 
tell you "The Virginian" idealizes it. I never realized what a 
brutal, brutalizing trade the cattle business is. First we watched 
the weighing. Over the platform of the scales is built a pen into 
which as many of the poor frightened creatures as possible are 
driven, from five to seven, and weighed. They average from 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 143 

eleven hundred to twelve hundred pounds and are paid for, 
three and a half cents per pound. Then I went to see the 
branding. 

Mr. H. who owns a» big cattle ranch of one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand acres and forty thousand cattle was buy- 
ing yearlings. The poor struggUng, frightened brutes were 
driven into a sort of trough, two at a time. When in, the sides 
are chained together with ropes so that they are packed in and 
then branded in two places and their ears cut. The dust and 
cries and the struggling and the burning odor and the blood made 
it an awful ghastly sight, and I was glad to get away. 

At night we had another good service and in spite of the fact 
that the men were very tired several of them came. I am to 
spend the next three days going about calling and dining. Did 
I tell you Mr. Taylor of Warren sent me $ioo for my work, from 
one of his laymen, and just in time to help get Smith out here 
where he is much needed. 

I never saw more hospitable people. Everybody is always 
welcome and to stay as long as they please. Visitors seem to be 
a luxury in Clover Valley. 

Eureka, Nev. Oct. 19. 

Got here this a.m. in a regular blizzard, snow right in our faces. 
Ought to have arrived at 2 a.m. but it was 4.30. Had a big thick 
coat, borrowed in Ely and gunny sack about my feet and didn't 
mind it. The people here were glad to have me and I was just 
in time for a funeral. The funeral was dreadful; undertakers 
in town may be officious but those in the wilds are unspeakable. 
This man jimiped into the grave to pull up the straps and put 
the cover on the box. 

I send you the letter from President Wilson (asking him to 
preach in the Princeton college chapel). It is about the biggest 
honor IVe ever had. I wish I might accept it, but I am more 
likely to get money for Utah in Trinity Church than in college 
chapel. 

We had fine services last night. Wonderful with no clergyman. 



144 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

It really seems that two or three earnest lay people do more good 
than a poor minister. 

I go to-morrow noon to Austin. It is only seventy-five miles 
oyer the country but nearly three hundred as I have to go. One 
does spend so much time just "getting there." The people in 
the east do not understand what a lot of time it all takes, as long 
to go from Eureka to Austin as from Chicago to New York. 

Austin, Nev. Oct. 22. 

We had a fine service. The Methodists shut up shop and the 
preacher, a very nice man, read the lessons for me. The church 
here was for years the first in Nevada. It had a pipe organ and 
beautiful walnut furniture. How I wish we could get enough 
money to have a clergyman. The rectory had been abandoned 
and was in ruins when Captain G., a fine Churchman, who has lived 
here for years, moved in and has fixed it up in "ship shape." 
That phrase means a lot to him for he was once a sea captain. 
The house is neat as a pin. Bishop Leonard doesn't seem to 
have come oftener than once a year and some times not that. 
It is the great distance that takes the time. Stage riding is a 
dreadful waste of time, for one can neither read, or write, only 
talk and think. And besides when one is alone with the driver 
he soon learns all that individual knows. 

I had quite a time last night. The train from Eureka to 
Battle Mountain is a little narrow gauge affair and was late. 
When we reached Battle Mountain I couldn't get a bed, not even 
a cot, for the races were on in the town. So I sat in the hotel 
room by the fire. About one o'clock a man came out of one of 
the bedrooms and asked me why I didn't go to bed, and I laughed 
and said that beds were a scarce article! He said, "You can 
take mine, it's clean and I'm through for the night." I protested 
but he insisted and so I went with him and tumbled in. There 
were two other men in the little room, but I got some sleep. 
I have a good bed here at the rectory and I shall make up for 
lost time. 



THE CHURCH IN UTAH 145 

I confess I had forgotten about the year ago excitement. Its 
wonderful how one drops into the new Hfe and sort of takes it 
for granted that it has been that way always. On account of 
the horse races they have decided not to run the railroad train ! 
It puts me out of all my other appointments, but it gives me a 
good chance to answer all my letters and visit the public school 
here. 

Elko, Nev. Oct. 29. 

I had a most interesting experience in Battle Mountain. Mrs. 
Jenkins, an intelligent English woman, told me there were fifteen 
Church people in town and only three Methodists, and they were 
longing for a Church service, and that Dr. Polk, the physician 
was a Churchman. I went to see him and found him a splendid 
fellow — a Cornell and Columbia man who has worked four 
years with Bishop Hare. He is just the kind of a Churchman you 
like to meet — took the Church Standard and knew what he 
believed and loved the Church. We hustled round and got the 
loan of the Methodist Church. Posted notices and at 7.30 
had a fine service. When I was leaving Dr. P. gave me $10 for 
missions, saying he hadn't had a chance to for a long time and 
wants to help. I'll get off to Salt Lake to-night after service. 

Salt Lake, Oct. 30. 

Home safe this a.m. Feeling well but rather tired of traveling. 
I'm to preach twice to-morrow for Mr. Perkins. It is the 25th 
anniversary of the church. My text is, *' Speak unto the Chil- 
dren of Israel that they go forward." 

I've had another letter from President Wilson. He is cer- 
tainly taking a lot of trouble to get a poor preacher. 

I have been pretty well over the district now and I know just 
about what it is going to mean. There are two courses open to 
me. One is to be a superintending kind of a bishop, to try to 
stay a good part of the time in Salt Lake and go to confirm and 
all that. If I were married I'd have to be that kind, as father 
was, for I'd have a duty to my family. But there is the other 



146 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

kind, the missionary bishop. It would require me to be on the 

go all the time and, if I am not to be married, I think that is the 

kind of bishop I ought to be, the kind this district really needs 

unless it is divided. While it is its present size and while we have 

so little money to work it, the bishop could easily be away ten 

months of the year. 

It grows very clear to me sometimes that I would be a most 

unsatisfactory kind of a husband for any woman to have, for if 

I am to do this work well, I shall have to be away so much that 

to ask a woman to marry me is to ask her to be very lonely. I 

ought almost to say, " Will you be my widow ?" I guess the Lord 

knows what He is about for I haven^t time to be anybody^s 

husband. 

White Rcm:ks, Utah, Nov. 10, 1905. 

One sometimes wonders whether what Mr. Chesterton says 
about the book of Job isn^t true, that it tells us that life and 
the world and the whole of it is "one huge divine joke." If that 
be true then it's the gift of humor which helps us see the job a 
little and that saves us. And I confess that my sense of humor 
does come to the relief of my poor old heart sometimes, for I 
must seem to the angels like a man chasing his hat when the 
wind has blown it off ; just when he has caught up with it it takes 
another spurt and he goes on ridiculously down the street. He 
really must try to catch up with it if he can or get a hard cold 
in the head and be rather absurd without a hat. You are a lot 
younger than I am, I guess my youthful enthusiasms are all 
gone. 

There have been men who coveted the distinction of the 
missionary episcopate and loved to be called of men 
"bishop" and "Rt. Rev.", but who, when confronted 
by the petty tasks, the hardships and the magnitude of the 
problem, soon sought transfer to an established diocese 
or some place of comparative ease. Such men are popu- 
larly known in the Church as the bishops from such and 
such a place. But when a man faces the task of the Church 



THE CHXTRCH IN UTAH 147 

in the new country and endures hardship as a good soldier, 
he deserves, whether or not he receives, the distinction not 
of a bishop, but what is infinitely better, of a hero of the 
Church of God. Frank Spalding went to Utah, as he wrote 
his mother, "to stay.*' From his knowledge of the West- 
ern country and of his own father's hfe, he knew what to 
expect. The stage driver into the Uintah country said of 
him, "When I first seen him I know'd he was no tender 
foot.'* Depressed he might be, after surveying his field, 
and giving utterance to his mood, for he was ever outspoken 
and frank, but never overcome and defeated. He said to 
his own soul, as to the people of St. Paul's, "Speak unto 
the Children of Israel that they go forward." 



XI 

Salt Lake City 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake, July 30, 1905. 

I've been writing a lot of notes to rich men in Salt Lake, ask- 
ing them when I can have a short interview with them and if 
they reply I shall have to get up my nerve and go for the money. 
It will show how good a beggar I am. IVe surely a good cause 
and I'm going to do my best. It takes all the grit I have to do 
it. It is so much easier work to give than to make other people 
give. 

The good cause, to which he refers, was St. Mark's Hos- 
pital, Salt Lake City. St. Mark's had been started by 
Bishop Tuttle when such a thing as a hospital had never 
been thought of in Utah. The Mormons believed that 
prayer and the laying on of the Elder's hands availed for 
cure, and felt no need of expert medical science. With 
the discovery of the precious metals in the mountains of 
Utah the population increased rapidly, the newcomers 
engaging in more dangerous work than farming, which was 
the only occupation the Mormon leaders encouraged, and 
the need of a hospital became urgent. Started in a small 
adobe house in two rooms, in seven years St. Mark's cared 
for two thousand three hundred and eight patients at an 
expenditure of $64,870.98. Until 1904 St. Mark's Hospital 
kept up this remarkable record of self support. Its gifts 
for the erection of new buildings and the purchase of 

148 



SALT LAKE CITY 1 49 

equipment had amounted to less than $25,000 and of that 
amount $21,000 was given by five generous Western men. 
In the year 1903 $30,000 was borrowed for the erection 
of the north wing, with its greatly needed operating room 
and kitchen. In the meantime other churches followed 
the example of the Episcopal Church. The Roman 
Catholic Church opened a hospital and the Mormons 
erected the Latter Day Saints Hospital at a cost of 
$1,000,000. The patronage of St. Mark^s fell behind, 
and Bishop Leonard, as one of the last acts of his epis- 
copate, signed a mortgage for $30,000. When Bishop 
Spalding went to Utah the hospital was unable to pay 
interest on the debt and was badly in need of a nurses' 
home. 

To the distasteful task of raising money Spalding set 
himself with a will in the first summer of his episcopate. 
He knew that the large sum needed would have to be raised 
outside of Utah but he believed that every effort should 
first be made in Salt Lake City. 

To His Mother 

June 10, 1905. 

Dr. B. is kind enough to agree to go about with me this sum- 
mer and try to raise money in Salt Lake City to repair the hos- 
pital, and I cannot tell him that I will not do it, when he is will- 
ing, for it is very kind in him to go. The hospital is really in 
a very serious condition. We have tried our very best to get the 
trustees to act and they will not do it, so I must. I went all 
through the new Mormon hospital the other day. Everything 
is just as it ought to be with the great Mormon Church behind 
it to pay any deficit. And just think of it, the will that began 
that hospital was written by a sick man in St. Mark's ! I know 
if we are to keep the doctors we must make many improvements 
and we cannot do that without money. I expect I shall have 



150 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

to spend many weeks in the East next winter appealing for 
money for the hospital but I cannot honestly do that until I 
have tried out here. 

July 28. 

I made my beginning yesterday as a hospital beggar and had 
no success. Mr. H. never answered my note and Mr. W. turned 
me down hopelessly. But in all great wars except the Rus- 
sian-Japanese the losers of the first battle won out in the end. 
I must stop and spend the evening making calls. I suspect it 
is to be mostly up to me. Dr. B. is slapping me on the back and 
telling me to ''go it." 

E. told me with great enthusiasm that he had collected fifty- 
three dollars for the hospital. Mr. H. came in saying, "Did you 
hear what E. did?" ''Yes," I said, "he made a creditable con- 
tribution." "Yes," said H., "he sent me fifty- three dollars and 
with it a patient with typhoid to be paid for with the fifty-three 
dollars as far as it would go. The hospital will therefore prob- 
ably be poorer for the interest of E.^ 



)7 



When Bishop Spalding finally went East after making 
every effort in Salt Lake he raised $53,000 which paid in 
full the indebtedness, and erected the Bishop Leonard 
Memorial Nurses Home. The decline in St. Mark's patron- 
age was only temporary. In September, 1914, just be- 
fore his death, he reported two thousand eight himdred 
and fifty-three patients cared for and the hospital revenue 
amounting to over $84,000. There were thirty-two physi- 
cians on the staff, consulting, active and associate, thirty- 
nine nurses in the training school, five supervising nurses 
and at least six graduate nurses always in attendance 
on private patients. St. Mark's had at that time $16,000 
endowment; three ward beds were endowed with $5000 
each and a gift of $1000 provided for the upkeep of 
a private room. Of this endowment $1100 was given 



I 



SALT LAKE CITY 151 

by Eastern friends. Beginning with absolutely nothing, 
St. Mark's not only paid its own way almost entirely, 
but built a plant worth over $100,000. Churchmen out- 
side of Utah contributed in that time to the fabric and 
endowment less than $70,000. St. Mark's has almost a 
unique history of self-reHance and self-support. It was 
the work of Frank Spalding, taken up with no confidence 
in his abihty to raise money but pushed with all his grit, 
that restored St. Mark's to its place of usefulness and ser- 
vice to all sorts and conditions of men.^ 

The last article which Bishop Spalding wrote before his 
death was about St. Mark's. In it he said that though St. 
Mark's was ministering to more patients than either of the 
other hospitals in Salt Lake City, the time had come when 
a new hospital must be built. "Of course the St. Mark's 
of the future cannot build itseK. God only knows where the 
himdreds of thousands of doUars it will cost will come from. 
But if St. Mark's is doing His work they wiU surely come." 
In that faith he labored and in that faith he died. Those 
who knew of his faith and labor have proposed that the new 
St. Mark's shaU be a memorial to him. If the Church at 
large knows of it, beyond doubt generous Church people 
will make his last dream a beneficent reality. 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake, Oct. 6, 1905. 
Rowland Hall is fine. The new teachers are very nice look- 
ing and the school is bigger than ever; thirty-eight boarders 
and I don't know how many day pupils. 

^ In one month 209 patients were distributed as follows: men 176, 
women 33; Irish 4, Greeks 23, Americans 146, Finns 12, Austrians 5, 
Swedes 5, Japanese 4, Italians 6, Scotch i, German i. Episcopal 14, 
Roman Catholic 24, Mormons 30, Presbyterian 9, Disciples 2, Baptist 3, 
Greek Church 22, Lutheran 7, no church connection 98. 



152 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Before the public schools of Utah were improved and 
passed under "Gentile^' control, the Church established 
day schools in towns where it had missions. After that 
much-needed reform in the public school system the Church 
wisely closed its schools. In Salt Lake City, however, the 
girls' school had been partially endowed and had received 
several scholarships from generous friends in the East. 
This school was Rowland Hall, and when Spalding went to 
Utah it was entering upon its twenty-fifth year. 

Rowland Hall had an excellent record of scholarship. 
Its graduates frequently went to the leading colleges of the 
country and there found that they had been well prepared. 
But what especially interested Bishop Spalding was the 
schooFs contribution to the home in the small town and on 
the ranch. On his first visit to the outlying missions of 
his jurisdiction he found here and there a graduate of a 
Church School and saw its far-reaching influence. It was 
women receiving such training who kept up the Sunday 
School in towns where no clergymen had been sent, or 
assisted the clergymen or who worked up a congregation 
for the bishop. 

In 1905, when Bishop Spalding reached Salt Lake, 
Rowland Hall faced a critical year. It became necessary 
to erect a new building, and the " Brunot Bequest '^ of $38,000 
had to be used for that purpose, thus depriving the school 
of what had been for a number of years an endowment. 
Building materials increased in cost during that year, so 
that although the original plan of having a chapel con- 
nected with the school was abandoned, and parts of the 
building were kept unfinished, yet a debt of $12,000 had 
to be incurred. Instead of having the income of $38,000 
to apply to the expenses of the school and the assistance of 
needy pupils, the school had to pay from its income the 



SALT LAKE CITY 1 53 

interest on $12,000. The scholarships amounted in that 
year to $1045, while $2115 was spent in helping girls who 
could not stay in the school without help. Under such con- 
ditions the school could not exist long. 

It was proposed to meet the critical situation by increas- 
ing the tuition to $500, but Bishop Spalding set his face 
against it. The school was ever in danger of becoming a 
select private day school for the daughters of well-to-do 
people in Salt Lake who could well afford to send them to 
expensive Eastern schools ; whereas he had ever in mind the 
girl on the ranch and in the small town. It was this girl 
who in all probabiUty would, after graduation, go back to 
her home and become influential, either as teacher in the 
school or as mother of a family. The students usually 
became Churchwomen before graduation, and thus through 
them the high standards of Christian womanhood were 
carried into the valleys and moimtains. Therefore Spald- 
ing determined to give the education to the girls who needed 
it and would make the best use of it. It meant, however, 
that he must raise the money to pay the debt and finish 
the building. He believed there must be those who were 
interested in the education of these girls and the Church 
work in the far West, who, when they knew of the need, 
would furnish the money necessary to reheve the embar- 
rassment. There were no Church schools in Utah, Montana, 
Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and the 
girls from western Colorado and eastern Idaho could 
reach Rowland Hall more easily than the Church schools 
in their own states. Where Mormonism was intrenched 
Spalding felt that it was essential that Christian influence 
should surround the girls of both city and country. It 
was a lamentable fact that a large number of Gentile girls 
were being educated in Mormon Church schools. 



154 PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

When the burden of the hospital debt had been lifted, 
Bishop Spalding put his strong shoulders beneath Rowland 
Hall. He had appealed to Utah and the East for the hos- 
pital, he would appeal to Utah and California for the 
school. The great tide of population as it swept westward 
leaped the mountains and settled down on the coast where 
it increased in wealth and culture. The Pacific coast was 
draining wealth out of the Utah mountains as was the 
Atlantic, and Spalding felt that it had a corresponding 
duty to the mountains. 

To His Mother 

May lo, 1909. 

I am going to the Pacific coast to try to get money for Utah 
and stir up missionary interest. I have been working this idea 
up for some time and when at last Bishops Keator and Nichols 
and all agreed to it I felt I had won quite a victory. I send 
you herewith an article I wrote for the Pacific Churchman which 
gives the argument. When I speak of the Middle States I do 
not mean the old middle west of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, &c. 
but I mean the western middle states, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, 
Nevada, &c. There is great wealth along the Pacific coast and 
unless we begin to develop a sense of missionary responsibility 
there, we shall, I feel, be making a great mistake. I know it 
will not be easy and that I may not make even expenses and yet 
I believe for the good of the Church in the West some one ought 
to make the experiment, and I'm going to try as they all seem 
to think I am as well fitted to do it as any one else. I hope you'll 
feel that I'm not altogether wrong about the Pacific trip. John 
Wood was very happy about it, and indeed it seemed a fine 
step forward for the whole Department. It will not do for us 
aU to feel that we must help only ourselves and they all realize 
that Utah is an especially tough proposition. It is very kind 
of Mr. H. to want me but of course I wouldn't consider it even 
if I could under the canons. I think a missionary bishop ought 



SALT LAKE CITY 1 55 

to stay. It seems to me that is the real value of the bishop. He 
is there for Hfe and so becomes thoroughly identified with the 
State, beheves in it, and represents it. This he cannot do if he 
thinks of the missionary episcopate as a stepping stone to some- 
thing better. 

As a result of his labors East and West, the debt of 
$12,000 was paid, several scholarships for the pa3anent of 
the expenses of worthy girls were contributed, and a beau- 
tiful new chapel costing $8000 was built, and $4000 was 
given to finish the unfinished portion of the new building. 
Thirty-two hundred dollars came from the Missionary 
Thank Offering of 1908. To-day Rowland Hall, with its 
dignified chapel and its well-equipped building, stands 
upon its hill, looking out over the stronghold of the Mor- 
mons and the great valley of Utah, a witness to Bishop 
Spalding's faith in the Christian education of womanhood. 
He made a great point of building as beautiful buildings 
as it was possible to do, regretting the many cheap and 
ugly edifices which represented the Church in so many 
little towns throughout the West. 

The University of Utah, the State University, brings to- 
gether in Salt Lake City each year a large number of stu- 
dents both Mormon and Gentile. The separation between 
Town and Gown was in Salt Lake as in every other college 
center. Spalding came into contact with the students of 
the University the first June he was in Salt Lake, when he 
preached the baccalaureate sermon before the Class of 
1905. How to reach the students and surround them with 
the protection and inspiration of religion was a problem 
which deeply interested him from that time. When he 
found himself free of the burdens which he had inherited 
he took up with enthusiasm the solution of the student 
problem. It seemed to him that a club-house similar to 



156 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

the successful work for students at Logan, would do for 
young men in the University what the parish house had 
done for the children and young people of Erie. A house 
with dormitory, swimming-tank, reading-room, billiard-room 
and chapel would bring together, upon a social basis, 
Mormon and Gentile students. In the exchange of opinion 
and the common interest of work and play, student would 
influence student, and a better understanding would result. 
So the Emery House was built, adjoining the University 
campus. At its very center, as the source of its life, is the 
chapel with its daily prayers, attendance at which was 
entirely voluntary. There are rooming accommodations for 
thirty-eight men, a dining-room big enough to accommodate 
the residents and others, a swimming-tank, which is used on 
certain days by boys of the neighborhood and by the stu- 
dents. There, in the reading-room is found to-day the 
Ubrary of Bishop Spalding and the desk and chairs which 
he used in his Salt Lake study. The daily influence of 
this house upon the students of the University is great 
and from the day it was opened it has been taxed to its 
utmost capacity. The Emery House was made possible by 
a gift of twenty-five thousand dollars from one generous 
Ohio woman who had followed the career of Frank Spald- 
ing with motherly interest and found in this work for col- 
lege men a beautiful memorial to her own boy who had died 
while a student in college. 

Bishop Spalding^s influence in the city was exerted through 
the pulpit even more than through the institutions of the 
Church. During the summers he frequently took duty at 
St. Mark's Cathedral while the Dean was on his vacation. 
Every Lent, when he could arrange to be in Salt Lake, he 
gave a course of lectures. 



SALT LAKE CITY 1 57 

To His Mother 

Aug. 6, 1905. 

There was a good congregation this morning and I preached a 
new sermon which I had written out, on the Transfiguration and 
had a good time preaching it too. It was about Peter's proposal 
to build three booths, etc. I tried to show that we all needed to 
get out of the rush and sin of life, up with Christ and Moses and 
Elias; that Christ stood for a new grasp on the worth of man 
and the love of God, Moses for a new hold of the eternal prin- 
ciple of right and wrong, and Elijah for a sense of duty though 
all the world seemed against one. But that the real proof of 
Christ's divinity was not in his being on the mountain with 
raiment white and glistering but his taking the strength he got 
there and going down to the plain with it to heal the sick and 
cast out the devil ; as Gerald Stanley Lee says, ^* to love ordinary 
James and try again with Judas and be Peter's brother until he 
died." And here I took a shot at two tendencies ; the selfish- 
ness of culture — which wants us to be children of nature in a 
forest of Arden, build booths and stay there ; and the Christian 
Scientist, who bids one Hve up on the heights so completely 
that you are to hypnotize yourself into thinking there are no 
suffering, sinning men who need you down below. 

It is nice to spend Lent at home and have regular addresses 
to deliver. I've undertaken a good deal in the lectures at St. 
Paul's and St. Mark's. It is harder than it used to be for they 
make a bigger fuss over a bishop's addresses than they used to 
over a rector's, and that makes me nervous. We had a church 
full at St. Paul's last night and the people listened very atten- 
tively. I am also lecturing to the Rowland Hall girls on the 
Bible, Fridays at 11.45, for forty-five minutes. It makes a good 
deal of work for they seem, especially at St. Mark's, to expect a 
good deal from the Bishop. I am working very hard over these 
lectures and only wish I had more time. 

His lectures dealt with such important subjects as, "The 
Personality of God," " The Divinity of Christ," "Inspiration 



158 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

of the Bible/' " Credibility of Miracles/' "The Authority of 
the Church/' "Prayer — Is it Reasonable." On special 
occasions such as Labor Sunday he arranged special services, 
making use of prayers such as those of Professor Rauschen- 
busch and rearranging hymns like "Onward, Christian 
Soldiers," making it read, "Onward, Christian Workers/' 

April 10, 1908. 
I finished my last lecture — on Socialism — last night to a 
church crowded to the doors. The lectures didn't please every- 
body and yet I think they did good for they brought a lot of 
people to church who haven't been there for years, and I sup- 
pose one's influence and the Church's influence is increased as 
the Bishop is known to all sorts and conditions of men. It is 
wonderful what big crowds we have had at the St. Paul's lectures. 

Saturday Night. 

I have a busy Sunday ahead of me but I think I have my ser- 
mons pretty well in mind. I'm going to preach at St. Paul's in 
the A.M. on St. Matt. 27 : 5, 6, 7. The text is so odd that the 
people will look up and listen but the moral is clear. When we 
sell our master, the Christ within us who is our only hope of 
glory, remorse is sure to follow, and we shall find the silver — 
the pleasure — worthless and will fling it down into the temple, 
and it is fit for nothing. Had we stood for Christ, our example 
would have made things live. But the treason is good only to 
make graves. 

And then at night in the Cathedral, on St. John, xi. 51, 
52. How Christ's death unified the world, as Maurice 
said, "What the Roman eagle was expected to do, the cross 
succeeded in doing." If we want brotherhood and peace 
and unity, we must cultivate not the force and power and 
cruelty of the eagle, but the unselfishness and the love of 
the cross. 

Preaching in a place once a year is certainly different from 



SALT LAKE CITY 1 59 

preaching in a parish to the same congregation each Sunday. It 
is a pleasure being at St. Mark's twice in succession. 

Preaching to a handful of people in the towns isn't very good 
practice for eloquence and choice diction, for though of course 
I try to use as good words as I can, to keep their attention, one 
is compelled to be conversational and simple. ; 

In Salt Lake City Spalding was ever at work, trying to 
understand and encourage some group in its struggle fpr 
better conditions, or help on some noble cause. He wbjs 
President of the Utah Peace Society, and the Archaeo- 
logical Society and belonged to the Salt Lake Playgroimd 
Association, the National Consumers' League, National 
Committee of One Himdred, Anti-Tuberculosis, American 
Association for Labor Legislation, Intercollegiate Socialist 
Society, Sons of American Revolution, American Sociologi- 
cal Society, the Y. M. C. A. He always accepted, when 
possible, invitations to speak for these causes, he wrote 
letters to office holders in behalf of useful legislation ; he 
paid the dues and tried to read their publications. 

To His Mother 

March 31. 

Yesterday I spoke to the D. & R. G. strikers, giving them a 
review of Carroll D. Wright's book on the "Battles of Labor." 
He deHvered the lectures in Philadelphia Divinity School. 

I began my lectures on the Bible at the Y. M. C. A. last night 
and had a good sized crowd, the room full. It was fine having all 
those men to talk to. The Y. M. C. A. certainly does a lot of good, 
for that great building is full of men and boys all the time. 

I've been so busy that I couldn't write and have had several 
rather interesting adventures. I called on President Joseph F. 
Smith and met him in his room surrounded by several of the apos- 
tles or counsellors. I wanted to get him to use his influence to 
prevent the sale of Hquor to the Indians, and they all promised. 



l6o PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

March 31. 
I have been asked by Mr. Orson Whitney to be one of a Com- 
mittee to hear him read a new school history of Utah which he 
has written and which he proposes introducing into the Utah 
Schools. I really don't know what I ought to do about it; 
though it would be very interesting and it will be very delicate, 
one would like to help make the history truthful and that way 
invites unpleasant relations with the Mormons. But I think 
if I can get in the time I'll do it, for what am I here for if not 
to do just such things. 

The papers of Salt Lake uttered a simple truth, known 
to all men, when they headed their accoimts of the terrible 
accident of September 25, 1914, with these words, "Salt 
Lake has lost a great citizen." 



XII 

MORMONISM 

Bishop Spalding was the first missionary among the Mor- 
mons to make a serious effort to imderstand Mormonism. 
His exposition of the theological system of the Church of 
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based as it was upon a 
first-hand study of the Book of Mormon and other authori- 
tative literature of the church, was regarded by the Mor- 
mons themselves as eminently fair and true. He held that 
the missionary to the Mormons was under the same obHga- 
tion to know their literature as was the missionary to the 
Chinese to know the writings of Confucius. From the day 
he went to Utah we find him both reading the Mormon 
literature and seeking to know the effect of its teaching on 
the every-day Hfe of the Mormon people. 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake City, Jan. i6, 1905. 

I made my first break. The little girls where I was dining 
were telling me about their dolls and when one child said 'I 
have thirty- two dolls/ I naturally said, *You are as bad as 
Brigham Young.' The waitress glared at me and nearly dropped 
the dishes. When she went out my hostess laughed and said 
not to mind, for she was a Mormon. 

There are a lot of very nice people here. One would hardly 
know there were any Mormons. Dr. X. of the St. Mark's Hos- 
pital told me that the whole business of polygamy was so dis- 

M 161 



1 62 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

gusting that the Gentiles had made up their minds that for 
decency's sake they would simply ignore it and keep it out of 
mind and not talk about it any more than they would talk about 
any other indecent subject. There seems to be a general agree- 
ment that time and development alone can cure it and is 
curing it. 

I have become quite well acquainted with Dr. Paden, the 
Presbyterian minister, and he is a very nice man. He is a great 
Mormon fighter. Mr. Goshen, the Congregational minister, is 
also a nice fellow, a brilliant preacher and he disagrees with Dr. 
Paden and thinks that fighting the Mormons does more harm 
than good, and that it will in time solve itself. 

In Salt Lake City the Gentiles outnumbered the Mor- 
mons, but in towns like Logan and Provo the Gentiles were 
a very small minority. Writing from Logan on Feb. 8, 
the new bishop said, "This place is a Mormon stronghold. 
We have but a dozen communicants — poor discouraged 
little folk who don't know what to do and I don't either." 
At Provo, while he was preaching to a congregation of 
twenty, the Mormon bishop was addressing 2000. In the 
stage from Echo to Park City he found "an intelligent 
Mormon who declared that he abominated polygamy." 

Vernal, March 3, 191 5. 
The Mormons are peculiar in their moral ideas. Nobody ever 
locks his doors for that sort of stealing is unknown. Here, 
however, Mr. Ostenson once put a hat on a stand near the door 
and asked any one who wanted to help the church to put in as 
they were minded. His ears were cheered with a good many 
clinking coins, but when he counted the spoil there was only 
ten cents. Later in the evening a young man came to ask him 
for a Prayer Book, said he was tired of Mormonism and deeply 
impressed with the Episcopal religion. It proved later that 
this same pious youth had taken all the money in the hat but 



MORMONISM 163 

the two nickels, and the Prayer Book dodge was a precaution to 
prevent discovery. The Mornions are very polite. They al- 
ways say ''excuse me" when they leave the table even in the 
boarding house. But the Vernal opera house owner said that he 
would loan us the use of the house because "the Episcopals are 
ladies and gentlemen and don*t spit all over the floor." 

The Mormons never blaspheme, but they talk to their horses 
in language compared with which a literal disobedience of the 
third commandment would seem edifying. Our stage driver 
gave his horse what he called, "Hell fire and a down hill shove," 
and we went the last eight miles in the dark with a rush. 

Union Pacific R.R. Aug. 3, 1905. 

I am reading the book of Mormon and am going to read nothing 
else until I finish it, or at least that is my present intention. 

Salt Lake, Aug. 6, 1905. 

I am patiently reading the book of Mormon. It is terrible 
rot, but I suppose I ought to know it if I am to represent the dis- 
trict adequately. I shall be expected to be an authority on 
Mormonism. 

Oct. 10, 1905. 

I am now reading with great interest the Mormon articles of 
the Faith and Doctrine and Covenants and I think I shall be 
quite an authority after awhile. 

I met on the train a very intelligent Mormon or ex-Mormon 
from Provo and I've had a good argument with him and intend 
to get some more. He seems to be a well educated man and 
quotes Mill, Huxley, Darwin et al, with great fluency. He was 
once a professor in the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, and 
I got a good deal out of him about Mormonism. There was 
also on the train a Mormon missionary. He had been preach- 
ing twenty-five months in Colorado. He said he hadn't bap- 
tized anybody but hoped he had sowed the seed. He believed 
in polygamy as the most perfect way but doubted whether he 
was good enough to be married to more than one woman. 



164 pranklin spencer spalding 

Randlett, Nov. 8, 1905. 

I have been getting lots of evidence for my speech on Mor- 
monism. Out here the Mormons are at their worst and awful 
tales are told about their utter lack of the common decencies of 
life. However, I am going to be very careful not to over state 
the matter. 

IVe been reading Mormonism until I'm sick. The book by 
Roberts which they gave me at the Information Bureau was 
published in 1903 and beats them all. I shall have to go slow or 
I'll become a fanatic too. 

Bishop Spalding made his first address on Mormonism 
at the Interseminary Missionary Alliance, in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, in December, 1905. Before going East 
he took his speech, carefuUy written out, over to the Bureau 
of Information in the Temple grounds and asked some one 
in authority for a frank criticism. The person of whom this 
unusual request was made Kfted his eyes to heaven and 
exclaimed, "At last we have found an honest man." Study- 
ing at Harvard at that time was a university professor 
from Utah who was married to a Mormon woman. He 
had talked on Mormonism in Cambridge and had given the 
impression to many that the "Mormons are all right." 
Bishop Spalding wanted to give a fair and accurate state- 
ment of Mormonism in his Cambridge speech, but he also 
felt that certain plain and unwelcome truths should also 
be stated. When he reached Cambridge he at once called 
upon the professor from Utah and invited him to attend the 
meeting and to hear his speech on Mormonism and the 
Mormons, as his one aim was to be fair to all concerned. 
The Bishop was greatly pleased after the meeting to have 
the professor come up to him and thank him for his fair 
and intelligent presentation of the subject. 

Three methods of dealing with the Mormons were in 



MORMONISM 165 

vogue when Bishop Spalding went to Utah. One was 
that of some Protestant Churches which sought to batter 
down Mor monism with opprobrium. The second was that 
of the Roman CathoHc Church, the plan of building a 
majestic cathedral on a commanding site in Salt Lake City, 
and leaving the front door open. The third, advocated 
by Bishop Tuttle and followed by Bishop Leonard, was 
to avoid politics and polemic, and preach positively the 
historic gospel. Bishop Spalding's study of the situation 
led him to believe that the Roman Church contributed 
nothing to the solution of the difficulty. The Protestants 
by their numbers, energy and financial strength accom- 
plished much through their mission schools; but their 
mihtant and derisive attitude compromised their Chris- 
tian influence. The Latter Day Saints did not get, as a 
rule, the sympathy extended to the Chinese, the Indian, or 
the African race. This treatment embittered the Mor- 
mons against them. 

His aim was to avoid this spirit of suspicion and hostility 
and to confine the efforts of the Church to positive and con- 
structive service to Mormonism. By this method he hoped 
to accelerate the natural process of Mormon evolution 
from the state of mind which accepts blood atonement and 
polygamy up to that which is only satisfied with the Chris- 
tian standards. Mormonism during the past fifty years 
has been changed, developed, uplifted by outside influ- 
ences; it was gradually assxmiing the likeness of an ordi- 
nary Christian sect. Bishop Spalding, reahzing the trans- 
formation and welcoming it, sought to push it to its 
consummation. 

To that end, he labored, in the first place, to get the 
Mormons' point of view, holding that it is "all-important 
to get a man's point of view before we can hope to influ- 



1 66 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ence him.'' The Mormon boys and girls are taught from 
infancy, by parents and teachers whom they naturally 
trust, to believe in the divinity of the Mormon form of 
church organization and theological expression and in 
Joseph Smith, Jr., as a prophet of God. Just as soon as 
they are old enough they are encouraged to bear their wit- 
ness to the same alleged divine facts. They do not think 
nor are they encouraged to think. If they have doubts 
they are taught to pray and work for their Church and to 
beheve that their prayers are answered. The result is a 
bHnd, unreasoned behef in the founder of Mormonism as 
a prophet of God and in the truth of every claim he made. 
As a result Spalding knew and took joy in pointing out, 
that it is just as hard to induce a Mormon to change his 
faith as it is to induce a Presbyterian or an EpiscopaHan 
or a Roman Cathohc to change his, and for exactly the same 
reason. Nine-tenths of the members of all churches hold 
their denominational creed and organization in the same 
imthinking way that the Mormon holds his. It followed 
that, to his thinking, sarcasm and ridicule were not only 
wanting in Christian courtesy but were stupid forms of 
argument. The Mormon treated them as the orthodox 
Christian was wont to treat Tom Paine's ^*Age of Reason" 
or Ingersoll's "Mistakes of Moses." He held that infinite 
patience, imfaOing courtesy, frank sympathy and con- 
summate tact were needed in the controversy with the 
Mormons. 

Bishop Spalding also tried to put favorable construction 
upon Mormon words and acts. He steadily resisted the 
temptation to tell vivid tales about the Mormons, notwith- 
standing the pressure he was under to raise money in the 
East where interest in his work had to be aroused and sym- 
pathy created. Although the Mormons habitually over- 



MORMONISM 167 

praised their own virtues and idealized their history, he did 
not feel that it was fair to offset their exaggeration with 
charges of disloyalty and immorahty which are not true 
to-day. Many Gentiles criticized the Mormon system 
because the revenue is spent by the head officials without 
consulting the wishes of the people who contribute the 
money. But he said that that was the method of the 
Board of Missions of his own Church. The charge was also 
made that the people of Utah teach treason, and the temple 
ritual was cited as proof. That part of the temple ritual 
was as much a dead letter as parts of the AngHcan Lit- 
urgy. As for polygamous marriage — the universal charge 
against the Mormon, — Bishop Spalding recognized that 
that had never been practiced to the extent popularly sup- 
posed, and that such marriages were not multiplying. The 
missionary zeal of two thousand Mormons scattered over 
the earth, most of whom are school boys, who look at the 
call to a mission quite as much as a chance to see the world 
as to convert it, need not be feared by the churches, "if 
the churches are even haK awake.'' "It is not fair to ex- 
pect young Mormons to condemn polygamy, because in so 
doing they would condemn their own fathers and mothers. 
You ask why do they not strike out the polygamy section 
from * Doctrines and Covenants.' The answer is: For 
exactly the same reason that we can't get the 39 Articles 
out of the Prayer Book. Ecclesiastical societies are always 
most conservative. It is harder to change church law, 
church ritual, church organization than any other social 
conventions." 

It was Bishop Spalding's conviction, based upon wide 
observation, that within the Mormon Church a leaven 
was at work. The Bible was displacing the Book of Mor- 
mon in the daily use of the people. The idea of God was 



1 68 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

being spiritualized. The Mormon Church is interested in 
education and appropriated from its treasury for Church 
Schools in Utah $316,450 in one year. The desire of a 
young man to study in an Eastern university exempts him 
from going on a mission. While it is true that many 
Mormons who are graduated from Eastern universities re- 
main faithful and even devote their talents to defending 
Church doctrine and practice, a much larger number, even 
though they remain in the Church, take broader views of 
reUgion and let their light shine. One of the ablest teachers 
in Utah told him that the president of the Eastern univer- 
sity from which he was graduated with honors advised him 
to remain in the Mormon Church as long as they would 
let him stay. He told him that was the best way to play 
the game. For the modernist within the Church, Bishop 
Spalding had deep sympathy, and held that in the pubhc 
discussion of Mormonism those Mormon reformers should 

be considered. 

To His Cousin 

Salt Lake, Nov. 13, 1908. 

I've read carefully the whole of the Mormon number of "The 
Home Mission Monthly" and I thank you for sending it to me. 
I do not want to criticise it harshly for I know the men and women 
who wrote the articles are dead in earnest and are doing a great 
deal of good and yet I confess I do not approve of much that 
they say or of the way in which they say it. It seems to me the 
articles show a tendency to select the worst and not the best in 
Mormonism and judge the system by that. Haven't we changed 
our thought with reference to foreign missions and oughtn't 
we to-day to change it with reference to Mormon missions? 
When we were little we were taught that we ought to send 
missionaries to China and India and Japan because the people 
there were utterly depraved and their religion the work and 
worship of devils, now we deliberately try to see the virtues of 



MORMONISM 169 

the heathen and like St. Paul we say, "Whom therefore ye 
ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." I want to think 
and act that way to the Mormons. I know just what the temp- 
tation is which George B. Sweazy yields to in his address, and 
I guess in my speeches I've said many of the things he says, but 
I try not to do it any more because I feel surer and surer as I 
go about Utah and meet the people that they no longer believe 
many of the things he says they believe. I refer to the state- 
ment that Jesus practised polygamy and Mary and Martha were 
his wives. It is awful to think that such a statement was ever 
made and that some people still hold it, but surely it is a cause 
for thankfulness that many people in Utah have deHberately 
rejected it. In his book "Scientific Aspects of Mormonism," 
Prof. Nelson, a good Mormon, says "Let me disclaim any in- 
tention of arraigning ministers of the gospel in general, save as 
they resemble those in Utah. These latter have declared war on 
us and are therefore legitimate targets for counter attack. Un- 
able to agree among themselves on tenet and doctrine, they 
have yet found, deep in their spiritual bosoms, a common bond 
of union, hatred of the Mormons." It ought not to be possible 
for any Mormon to write that, and yet it has been in the past 
nearly true, though the Episcopalians and Roman CathoHcs 
have not been as extreme as others in their denunciations. The 
"Monthly" is not consistent for on page 299 I read "Many of 
the more obnoxious beliefs, though held by the initiated, are 
not taught openly, for the young people would not accept them. 
The Adam God theory for example, the young people know noth- 
ing of and yet it is one of the foundation principles of their re- 
ligion." Now I'd rather magnify the process of giving up, than 
the process of holding on to the old ideas. To charge the present 
Mormon with all that Smith and Young taught is almost as 
bad as charging the Presbyterian Church with all that Edwards 
preached. 

As to the advantages of Church Schools, we have given ours 
up except Rowland Hall and though I suppose if we still had 
them I would find many proofs of their usefulness, not having 



170 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

them I find some good arguments for their discontinuance. 
Last night I had dinner with Dr. Buxton, the "Christian" min- 
ister. His wife was a Mormon girl who was educated in the 
Presbyterian school at Mount Pleasant. Now I know if we had 
such a result I'd boast a great deal about it, and yet I believe in 
the public schools. The paper you sent me admits that, as 
State schools, the Utah schools rank high and I am inclined to 
think that it is better that the children of the Gentiles, who 
make up the majority in the Church schools, should have to at- 
tend the pubHc schools, for then their parents are interested in 
the pubhc schools, take offices on school boards and prevent the 
Mormons from having a free hand. And besides this, follow- 
ing the example of your Church, the Mormon Church is building 
up Mormon schools and colleges. They have more money than 
you have, and they are beating you at your own game. At 
Logan, for example, the New Jersey Academy hasn't, I suppose 
over one hundred pupils but the Brigham Young college has 
seven himdred and fifty. At Springville, the Hungerford Acad- 
emy has not over one hundred and fifty but six miles away the 
Brigham Young University has one thousand. Isn't it better 
that the State Institutions, Public Schools, County High Schools 
and State University, should be strong and attractive than that 
the Mormons should, like the Roman Catholics, develop their 
own educational system where they teach their doctrines and 
train their preachers? 

In Utah and elsewhere are men who regard Mormonism 
with an easy-going tolerance. What difference does it 
make what the Mormons believe? Bishop Spalding was 
once asked by a visiting banker. "What harm does it do? 
If they love Joseph Smith and his teaching, what business 
is it of ours?" "Well," he replied, "I must feel about 
their acceptance and teaching of what is intellectually and 
morally untrue, just as I suppose you would feel if you 
knew a group of people were coining and passing counterfeit 



MORMONISM 171 

money.'' The man thought a minute and then admitted, " I 
guess you are right, the counterfeit might pass for a time, 
but there would be a bad financial smash-up in the end." 

With a view to revealing the Mormons to themselves 
and to giving to them the real meaning of their reHgion the 
Bishop and his associates prepared several tracts. His 
own contribution bore the title, "Joseph Smith, Jr., as a 
Translator." It was the first attempt ever made to apply 
the methods of modem BibUcal criticism to the Mormon 
sacred books. According to his own story, Joseph Smith, 
Jr., found the Book of Mormon near Palmyra, New York. 
It was written on gold plates, and lay hidden in a box buried 
in the ground. Deposited with the plates were two crys- 
tals, called Urim and Thummim, by means of which the dis- 
coverer was able to translate the Eg3^tian characters in 
which the book had been written. The question which 
Spalding asked concerned the accuracy of Smith's trans- 
lation. Joseph Smith's competency as a translator of 
ancient Egyptian was of course subject to proof. If, in the 
judgment of Egyptologists of repute, Smith had made a 
correct translation of the text. 

Unfortunately for purposes of scientific verification, 
the original records were kept by the heavenly messenger 
who deHvered them to the Prophet. There was in exist- 
ence, however, the original text of another revelation, 
accepted by the Mormons as also divine, which the Prophet 
had translated. This document is the Book of Abraham, 
which had been purchased by Joseph Smith's friends from 
a French trader and explorer who had found it in a tomb 
near the site of ancient Thebes. The Prophet published 
a complete translation of the Book of Abraham, together 
with the facsimile, in 1842. Bishop Spalding found in this 
translation the test he needed of Joseph Smith's accuracy' 



172 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

as a translator. "If/^ he wrote, "in the judgment of 
competent scholars, this translation is correct, then the 
probabilities are all in favor of the correctness of the Book 
of Mormon. If, however, the translation of the Book of 
Abraham is incorrect, then no thoughtful man can be 
asked to accept the Book of Mormon, but on the other 
hand honesty will require him, with whatever personal 
regret, to repudiate it and the whole body of belief which 
has been built upon it and upon the reputation its publica- 
tion gave to its author." 

The translation and the facsimile were sent by Bishop 
Spalding to Dr. A. H. Sayce of Oxford, Dr. W. M. Flinders 
Petrie of London University, Dr. James H. Breasted of the 
University of Chicago, Dr. Arthur C. Mace of the Depart- 
ment of Egyptian Art of the Metropolitan Museum of 
New York, Dr. John P. Peters of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, Dr. Edward Meyer of the University of Berlin, 
Dr. Frederick Von Bissing of the University of Munich, 
and Professor C. A. B. Mercer, Custodian Hibbard Col- 
lection, Egyptian Reproductions in Chicago. These lead- 
ing Egyptologists of the world, each giving his judgment 
without knowledge of the other, were in practically com- 
plete agreement as to the meaning of the hieroglyphics, 
and the meaning was altogether different from that of Joseph 
Smith's translation. Joseph Smith had attributed to 
Abraham a series of documents which was the common 
property of a whole nation of people who employed them 
in every human burial which they prepared. The fac- 
similes were part of the usual equipment of the dead in the 
later period of Egyptian civiHzation before the Christian 
era. Joseph Smith's "translation" has no connection 
whatever with the decipherment of hieroglyphics by scholars. 
"The Book of Abraham," wrote Dr. Mace, " is a pure fabri- 



MORMONISM 173 

cation. Five minutes' study in an Egyptian gallery of any 
museum should be enough to convince any educated man 
of the climisiness of the imposture/' ''Joseph Smith," 
wrote Dr. Breasted, "represents as portions of a unique 
revelation through Abraham things which were common- 
places and to be found by many thousands in the every day 
life of the Egyptians." ''A careful study," wrote Dr. 
Von Bissing, '*has convinced me that Smith probably 
seriously believed himseK to have deciphered the ancient 
hieroglyphics, but that he utterly failed." 

Bishop Spalding sent complimentary copies of his pam- 
phlet to all the higher officials in the Mormon Church, to 
all the professors in Utah colleges and to the teachers in the 
Church and State High Schools. The manager of the 
Deseret Book Store (Mormon) asked for copies and sold 
nearly two hundred, which was a larger nimiber than were 
sold in the Gentile store where the pamphlet was also placed 
on sale. He was encouraged by the reception of the pam- 
phlet, although many Gentile friends insisted that this very 
reception was evidence of the futility of that t)rpe of criti- 
cism. The argiunent was read by many Mormons and over 
forty replies were printed in their publications. The an- 
swers dodged the real issue or confused the question. Bishop 
Spalding read them all with deep interest, and, instead of 
giving up faith in the methods of persuasion, declared that 
the method used by the Latter Day Saints in repelHng his 
criticism of the supernormal wisdom of Joseph Smith, Jr., 
was the same method used by nine-tenths of the defenders 
of other religions. "The same kind of special pleading 
and suppression of unwelcome facts have been used repeat- 
edly by believers in verbal inspiration in reply to the argu- 
ments of higher critics, by Roman Catholics in defending 
the infallibility of the Pope, by most religionists in main- 



1 74 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

taining the transcendent importance of their own special 
theological emphasis. Theological beliefs, once they are 
embodied into creedal statements, and accepted by groups 
of men change very slowly. Enough time must elapse to 
enable the new truth to work its way into the minds of all 
who hold the old truth. Nobody accepts any truth until 
he thinks he thought of it himself.** 

March 14, 1909. 

I gave a Mormon my article to read and asked him to tell 
me if he thought I was fair. I feel quite pleased and being 
blessed by the Melchizedek Priesthood is quite uplifting. 

On the principle that "he who has the youth has the 
nation," the Bishop, in seeking to reach the Mormons, chose 
to estabhsh missions first in the two college towns of Provo 
and Logan. Provo is the seat of the largest school and 
college of the Latter Day Saints, called The Brigham 
Young University. In Logan are the State Agricultural 
College and the Brigham Young College. He raised $5200 
to build in Provo a church and rectory, and $14,000 for a 
church house in Logan. Into Logan he sent two young 
men, whom he had inspired by his words in the East to 
offer themselves for work in Utah. There they lived on 
terms of genuine friendship with the Mormon people, draw- 
ing about them by means of club, gymnasium and classes, 
other young men. On Sundays they preached Christian 
sympathy and were able to draw encouraging congregations 
of young Latter Day Saints to listen to them. Their audi- 
ence usually consisted of Mormons, the proportion at times 
being about thirty of those to one Church member. 

Oct. 13, 1906. 

Jones and Johnston are doing splendidly. They are very 
happy and the people all like them. They gave me a reception 



MORMONISM 175 

in the rectory ; at least one hundred people were out, and we had 
a grand time. They are encouraged and I really believe will do 
a lot of good. I think they appreciate that it is to be slow hard 
work, but they see the need and are full of enthusiasm and they 
propose, too, to get other men from Cambridge. It is wonderful 
what an impression they have made on the town. It^s the first 
time really well educated gentlemen have been sent there. I^m 
hoping great things for Logan. 

To the ^Spirit of Missions' for October, 191 2, Bishop 
Spalding contributed an article under the suggestive cap- 
tion "Making New Friends." In it he told in detail the 
story of his reception in the Mormon tabernacle at Cedar 
City, Utah. "There," he says, "Bishop Metheson, one of 
seven hundred others who share with me, in Mormon land, 
the title of bishop — did a good deal more for me than I 
would have done for him had he visited me in Salt Lake." 
He had gone to Cedar City to preach the baccalaureate ser- 
mon at the South Utah Branch of the Utah Normal School, 
and was introduced by its President to Bishop Metheson. 
The Bishop invited Spalding to attend the Sunday School 
in the tabernacle and address the Parents' Class on any 
subject he might select. In the Mormon Church parents 
as well as children are expected to attend the Sunday 
Schools. The leader told him that they had been discussing 
"Home Sanitation," "Home Decoration" and kindred 
topics. "Being unmarried and, therefore, able to preach 
what I did not have to practice, I spoke on * The way to bring 
up children.'" The Bishop later turned the assembly 
over to Spalding and gave him permission to conduct the 
service of the Episcopal Church. The deacons distrib- 
uted the evening service books and the choir led the music, 
singing "Nearer, my God, to Thee," "Jesus, Lover of my 
Soul," "Abide with Me," "Rock of Ages," —hymns found 



176 YRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

« 

in their book as well as in Bishop Spalding^s. He preached 
a sermon on the difference between true religion and super- 
stition, and declared that he never had a more considerate 
and more attentive congregation. At night the building 
was again crowded, many standing. Again Bishop Spald- 
ing preached, one Mormon bishop making the opening 
prayer and the other one pronouncing the benediction. 

In those missions, by means of the words and deeds of 
Bishop Spalding, the Church worked deliberately, patiently, 
kindly, for the enlightenment and conversion, not simply of 
Mormons, but of Mormonism, and received a sympathetic 
hearing from those it desired to help. The duty of the 
Church in the college town, as he conceived it, was first 
to help the young people in their own personal lives by 
giving them a Christian home while they were stud)dng ; 
second, to strengthen the process of reform within the 
Mormon Church; third, to welcome to the true Church 
those who would come. Statistics of increased church mem- 
bership, he held, are no test of the value of the work done 
and the money spent. Local self-support was not to be 
expected for a long time. The reaction from tithe paying 
results in a lack of generosity on the part of those Mor- 
mons who become members of our churches, and of course 
those whom they hope to reach indirectly cannot be ex- 
pected to contribute. The work was especially difficult 
because the Mormon Church was financially able to expend 
vast sums of money on schools, hospitals and meeting 
houses, and consequently much money had to be given to 
make the equipment of other churches dignified and attrac- 
tive. Small, shabby churches made a poor impression, 
especially in the West where appearances count for a good 
deal. His aim was to reach not the ignorant, religious 
fanatics of the last generation but young men and women, 



MORMONISM 177 

who have been educated in Eastern and Western universities 
and who are tempted to repudiate organized religion alto- 
gether or to sell their souls for the temporal advantage the 
Mormon Church offers. These men, said Bishop Spalding, 
were the intellectual superiors of some of the missionaries 
the various Boards thought strong enough for work in Utah. 
If the churches could put fifty first-rate men in Utah and 
keep them there for ten years, he believed they would have 
a far-reaching influence. 



N 



XIII 

Begging East and West 

When Frank Spalding first visited the Missions House in 
New York after accepting his election as bishop, he had 
what he described as a "terribly discouraging talk with 
Dr. Lloyd which makes me almost rebeUious. He says that 
money getting must be my chief business, and that there 
is no other way. He doesn't think that making speeches, 
etc., is Hkely to do much good. It must be a still hunt. 
Both Bishop Leonard and Bishop Ingalls, according to 
him, died because the Church deserted them, and that I 
must learn to take things easy and be light hearted about 
it and not try to do more than I can do." As he became 
familiar with the District he found that however much he 
desired to shepherd men and be a house-to-house and town- 
to-town evangehst, he was expected to be a financial agent. 
The appropriation for Utah from the Board of Missions 
was $3000. That was just half of what was needed for 
salaries alone. Then there was the huge debt on St. Mark's 
Hospital, and the imperative needs of new buildings for 
hospital and school in Salt Lake, and churches and rec- 
tories elsewhere. The Church at large, no less than the 
people of the District, put this immense burden upon the 
shoulders of the missionary bishop. 

In the summer and fall of his first year he confined his 
financial efforts to Salt Lake. In December, 1905, he 
went East. 

178 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 1 79 

To His Mother 

Cleveland, Nov. 27, 1905. 

I enclose a list of clergymen who ought to let me preach in 
their churches. What a dreadful job it will be. 

Just a moment to tell you that the first Sunday went fairly 

well. Good big congregations at Trinity and fair one at St. 

Paul's. The offering at Trinity was the regular one for Domestic 

Missions so I can only hope for the specials, though I helped, 

perhaps, the general cause. At St. Paul's they gave the whole 

collection to me. 

New York, Dec. i, 1905. 

Mr. McBee bragged so much about the fearlessness of the 
Churchman that I gave him my Sunday article. He said it 
was remarkably outspoken for a bishop and that he would pub- 
lish it if I wished, etc. And then after all his bluster about 
being fearless and abreast of the times, etc. he proceeded to say 
just about the same things you said yourself, and my dear 
mother, though you are about the dearest and best thing in the 
world, I don't think you are very fearless theologically nor very 
far ahead of the times. Don't worry about me for I'm getting 
along pretty well and it's a great thing to see one's way clear, and 
at least I've done the right thing. I am clear in my own mind 
now that I ought not to look for gleams of hope but rather to 
learn to walk in the darkness. Mrs. Leonard thanks the Lord 
at great length that I am not married and says no married man 
should be sent to such a work. 

Exeter, N. H., Dec. 3. 

The church was well filled at ten, more than half of them boys. 
In the afternoon I spoke at the chapel exercises of the Academy, 
I talked to them about becoming clergymen. There are nearly 
400 boys. 

After the service three sisters who didn't want their names 
given came up and said they would give me $500. ! ! ! and that 
night sent it around. That's my first big strike and I'm as 
happy and proud as a turkey cock. 



l8o FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

The people who gave the $500 were very poor when an 
old lover of the mother died and left her children a million 
dollars. 

Bridgeport, Dec. 8. 

I came down with a Cambridge Seminary man, a fine fellow, 
and I had a good talk with him. He had a lot of doubts and 
troubles and he said I helped straighten him out. If as big a 
heretic as I could be a bishop he was able to feel that he could 
be a priest. 

There was a good sized meeting at two, and I told my story with 
all my might and found that Connecticut has pledged $500 to 
St. Mark's, so got about $1200 for two weeks work. Though at 
that rate it will take a good long time to make $40,000. I said 
that since the miners of the West had sent so much money East, 
the East should pay it back. And who should catch up with 
me and drive me to the station but a woman who said her hus- 
band had owned the famous mine in Georgetown. 

Boston, Sunday, Dec. 11. 

I have had a great day. I feel as if I were standing in the 
shoes of the great men of old. At St. Stephen's this a.m. one 
woman whom Mr. Bishop says always gives $100 promised to 
remember me. But it takes a long time for $ioo's to make 
$40,000. Then this afternoon think of standing in PhilHps 
Brooks' pulpit ! The last time I heard any one preach there 
he did it. I was considerably scared and did some hard praying 
during the hymn before. Dr. Mann said it was all right and 
next time he would give me a chance in the morning. There is 
plenty to do and the magnitude of my work ought to comfort 
my soul, when the work includes the whole East as well as the 
District of Salt Lake. 

At Worcester there was a small congregation in the big, big 
church. I got no money as far as I can tell and Davies said 
nothing to me about it. He told me that John Wood made such 
a schedule for Bishop Rowe that he was glad to get back to 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST l8l 

Alaska and on the long snowy journeys to rest. It seems to 
be quite the fad to have autographs of bishops and I've had to 
sign several. 

Providence, Dec. 15. 

I didn't have time to write in New York for the day was so 
full. Dr. Huntington said over the 'phone that he could see me 
and I rushed up there. He was very polite, said he "would bear 
it in mind," etc. but didn't ask me to preach in Grace Church. 
Then I went to Brooklyn and had a fine meeting of the Auxiliary 
to talk to. Then we went to see Rev. Mr. Melish of Holy Trinity 
and he promised "to bear me in mind." Dr. Grosvenor has 
invited me to preach in the Incarnation which is a fine church, 
one of the best in N. Y. for giving. 

Bishop McVickar is much interested in missions in Salt Lake 
and it was through him that $2500 has been added to the Leonard 
Memorial fund, making it now nearly $10,000. 

Erie, Dec. 23. 

I have been to call on the old, sick and afficted, and it's a big 
job, and then every one wants to entertain me. I am a little 
disappointed for I hoped to get a rest here and I've been driven 
every second. 

P. R. R. Jan. 3, 1906. 
After a visit to the Indian Commissioner in the interest of our 
Indian work I spoke at St. John's. They say my addresses are 
interesting, etc. and I do hope I'll get some money. The only 
trouble is that the W. A. seem to be made up mostly of the 
widows and daughters of godly persons whose treasure is all in 
heaven. 

New York, Jan. 3. 
I couldn't accept Miss Emery's invitation because I had an 
engagement with a Cambridge student who is thinking of coming 
out to help us in Utah, — D. K. Johnston, a Yale man. He 
says I stirred up Cambridge a lot and four other men are think- 
ing of coming out. What shall I do to pay them? 



1 82 PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Jan. 4. 

I am afraid I'm getting along very slowly with money getting. 
Perhaps Philadelphia will do better for me, I confess I like the 
whole business less and less. 

I'm to appear before the Board on Tuesday and give evidence 
as to the way "specials" are raised and whether it wouldn't be 
better to have all the ''specials" go to the Board and let them 
give what I need and stay in Utah and use it. Mr. Thomas has 
cheered me a lot, not that I was down-hearted, only that I have 
not been getting along very fast towards the $40,000. 

Phila. Jan. 7. 

I must send you a line to tell you about the perfectly splendid 
meeting last night at Miss Coles. There was over a hundred 
there and all the rich folk in Phila. Thomas (Rev. N.) intro- 
duced me and then I actually talked over an hour and nobody 
went to sleep. Thomas said I made a good speech, which I'm 
glad of, for they were all your friends and father's and I wouldn't 
like to disgrace my birth and bringing up. Last night Thomas 
said he thought I'd get $5,000 out of the meeting but this morn- 
ing he has come down to two. Never a bishop had such a send 
off, they say. 

Jan. 8. 

I had a grand busy day yesterday. Dr. Tompkins strained 
a point or two, I thought, when he said, that he "accounted it 
a blessed privilege" or something like that to have me speak 
to his people. I preached to a big crowd in St. James' in the 
morning and the minister in charge said that it was the best 
missionary address he ever heard. That sounds fine, doesn't 
it? The only trouble is that at night Mr. M. who spoke with me 
at St. Peter's, told me that when he had spoken at St. James', 
the minister had told him it was the best presentation of the 
missionary cause he had ever heard. And M. isn't exciting to 
my thinking. 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 1 83 

New York, Jan. 8. 

Just think, IVe got $4500 all in one day. I honestly think 
there is $10,000 in sight. I'm so happy and grateful I don't 
know what to do. It makes me see how small and selfish my 
own hopes of happiness are for this joy is perhaps even greater. 
I guess the Lord knows what he is about for I haven't time to 
be anybody's husband. 

Jan. 10. 

My Philadelphia total is $6100. Isn't it splendid ! 

I gave my testimony to the Committee as to the bad effect 
of specials, etc. and how much better it would be to have it all 
one in the form of a big appropriation from the Board. And 
Dr. Lloyd told me afterward that I cracked the shell and he was 
grateful to me. 

Isn't it perfectly splendid that I have over $8,000. This 
pays at least the floating debt. Then Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, 
has guaranteed $200. a year on our interest. I don't know when 
I am going to get time to answer all the notes and gifts, for every 
moment seems fuU. To-day I am at the Philadelphia Divinity 
School at 12, Dr. Bodine at 3 and at Jenkintown at night. 

Jan. 12. 

Mr. G. C. Thomas has given me $5000 for the Leonard Memo- 
rial to complete it. He has promised the last $5000 if I can raise 
the rest and any way has pledged $500 a year toward the interest. 
** Praise God from whom all blessings flow I" Now I must work 
as I never dreamed of working before because $25,000 will pay 
the whole hospital debt. And you must pray even harder than 
ever. 

Washington, Jan. 16. 

I must go back to Sunday morning and tell you all my ad- 
ventures, as I haven't had a chance to write a decent letter. 

There are two assistants at and they called during the 

evening. One of them, a dapper Httle man, asked me if I would 
like to celebrate at the 7 a.m. service in the morning, and I 



1 84 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

said I would though I feared I might not do it right for St. S. 
is very high. He said the only requirement was that I must 
wear the vestments and take the eastward position. It did 
seem a little odd that the clothing all the bishops are using 
wasn't appropriate in that church, but I thought if he made a 
point of clothes I wouldn't get down to his level, and so I said 
O.K., and the next morning he dressed me in alb and chasuble, 
a most elegant green thing with embroidery. I hope I didn't 
shock the few worshipers who came out in the early wet and 
slippery morning. At the ii o'clock high celebration when I 
preached, a curate did it with wonderful mimibling and bowings. 

In the afternoon I addressed the Sunday School of Holy 
Apostles — the most wonderful S.S. I ever saw. Just as many 
boys as girls and men as women, i5cx> of them and in a beautiful 
building. It was missionary Sunday. Mr. George C. Thomas 
said he was coming that night in his official capacity as treasurer 
of the Board to inspect the new bishop. I preached with all 
my might. He seemed to be satisfied, and after service we went 
to his home. I never got into such a wonderful place. Among 
the pictures is a Millet, a Turner, and what is considered the 
finest Jules Breton. But you know about such things far more 
than I do. Among the books, The First Prayer Book of Ed- 
ward, a Sarimi Missal, a copy of Elliott's Indian Bible, the 
original mss. of *0, Little Town of Bethlehem,' the original 
telegram of U. S. Grant to the War Department announcing 
the surrender of Lee. 

I was up at six and off to Washington. Senator Guildham 
met me where we had an appointment and we went to the White 
House. Roosevelt was there and after speaking to those ahead 
of us I was introduced. We had quite a little talk about foot- 
ball reform, and he said he agreed largely with me. 

Wilmington, Jan. i6. 

I spent the day at the Alexandria Seminary. They seemed to 
me about the best set of men I've seen. I talked with them 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 185 

and put the Dean easy as to his fears that I am a ritualist. I am 
having a fine visit with ELirkus and a good meeting to speak to.' 

Phila. Jan. i8. 

I find I have about $12,000 and a promise of the last $500 and 
in addition I have promised, if the whole debt can not be paid, 
$1200 a year interest I 

On Friday I made an address in a parlor meeting in Newark.' 
Bishop Lines was there. I like Bishop Lines. The women seemed 
interested in the story of Utah. There is a temptation to tell 
the old stories but I^m trying to be just as accurate as possible. 

In the afternoon I went to Princeton. At the station a porter 
met me and said he had orders to bring me to the President's 
house. I called Woodrow on the 'phone and explained that I 
was going to Mr. Reid's for the night and to General Woodhull 
for dinner, and he said he was sorry, that he had telegraphed me 
at Salt Lake inviting me to be his guest, etc. In the a.m. Mrs. 
Reid and I went to 7.30 church, and when I reached home there 
was a nice note inviting us to dinner at the Wilsons. We ac- 
cepted and had a fine, nice, simple family dinner. 

Well, President W. came down to Mrs. Reid's early to walk 
with me to chapel. He is just as fine and simple as possible.. 
I wore a gown to preach in ; that seemed to be the custom of 
the place. I was a little frightened till I got going but then it 
was all right and I delivered my message for all I was worth, 
the subject being the future of college men as moral and church 
leaders. After it was over President Wilson said, ^'You could 
feel that they hstened to you, couldn't you, and they don't do 
that unless they want to." 

New York, Jan. 22. 

I think I have caught up with my mail, for this is the sixteenth 
letter I've written at this sitting. I find I must stay in New 
York a week longer for after I'd made my speech to the St. 
Thomas' Auxiliary, Dr. Stires invited me to lunch and asked me 
to preach in St. Thomas' in the morning. He said it was the 



Ii86 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

first time in three years he'd asked a missionary bishop! And 
Dr. Lloyd says I must do it. Dr. Mottet is giving me letters of 
introduction. He told me he had gone into a man's house and 
sat down and said he would not go till he gave him some money. 
I can't do that. 

I am going to Cleveland, the consecration of Dean Williams, 
as I have been appointed one of the presenters. It will have to 
be a quick trip but they seem to think at the Missions House I 
better do it. . 

Spalding went to Cleveland and presented his friend and 
fellow radical, the large-minded, big-hearted and fearless 
Charles D. Williams, for consecration as bishop of Michi- 
gan. When the bishops present assembled after the ser- 
vice to stamp the official document of consecration with 
their episcopal rings, Spalding came forward and pressed 
his thumb upon the warm wax. "There," he exclaimed, 
"I give you the original and genuine sign of a man." He 
wore no episcopal ring. On one or two occasions he used 
the doctor's hood which the general Theological Seminary 
gave him after his consecration, but that too, along with 
the certificate, was packed away in Salt Lake. Our semi- 
naries and colleges have abdicated their ancient right of 
discerning and honoring worth, and confer degrees for win- 
ning a majority vote in a diocesan convention or the House 
of Bishops. 

, He hated ''Rt. Rev." and " D.D. " and only printed them 
on his official envelopes to please his mother. A friend in 
whose church he was to preach, began to tell him where 
to find the Episcopal chair, when he broke in with, "Where 
are you going to sit?" "Over on that side of the church," 
answered his friend. "Then," said the bishop, "I'll sit 
beside you." The simplicity of Christ was to him some- 
thing to follow, even in church. 



. BEGGING. EAST AND WEST 187 

PmLA. Jan. 28. 

After this Eastern business anything out there will seem to 
be a rest. Not that I'm at all played out ; only it is hard going 
from place to place. 

Miss Coles' Bible Class is simply wonderful. After it adjourned 
all who would remained to pray for missions; I read a Htany of 
missions and at least 75 women joined in the service. It was a 
perfect revelation to me to think that all those society girls were 
dead in earnest. 

N. Y. Jan. 29. 

Oh ! but I have splendid news. gave me to-day $5000 ! ! ! 

and such a liice letter. I'm not to tell her name, just say it's from 
a friend. 

I think I have about $22,000 which is more than half. 

I ought to be in Salt Lake too for the Cathedral people are 
almost demanding my inamediate return. Still if I can get the 
whole debt paid it will be such a burden removed. With that 
debt I can not very well go forward and incur necessary small 
debts throughout the District where churches are needed. 

My, but I've been in a rush. In addition to being bishop 
of Salt Lake I've had to be rector of All Saints', Denver, and 
St. Paul's, Erie. I've tried to help a poor woman whom I used 
to befriend at All Saints' whose sad story I can't tell you about, 
and I've written 20 letters. I got $50 for my Princeton sermon 
and this paid my expenses to Williams' consecration. I was 
going to buy a new overcoat with it for I needed it, but it must 
wait. 

Mr. Heinze is giving me $5,000. He wants half of it to go for 
a church, and says if the church costs $5000 and the people 
pay the rest he will pay the interest on the debt. Isn't it great ! 

N. Y. Feb. 8. 

I'm pretty sick of this begging but I must of course keep it 
up to the end and I am surely having wonderful success. Bishop 
Leonard told me that if I hadn't been made bishop I was to have 



1 88 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

been called to St. Paul's, Cleveland. Which would you have 
liked best? 

I went to see Dr. Stires at his request. He says he does not. 
want me to say one word about money, just tell them about the. 
work. He cannot be there and so he can not back me up. But 
he says that later in the year, before they go off on their vaca- 
tions, in May perhaps, he will say to them, "Do you remember 
that missionary hero, F. S. S,, who came and addressed you. 
He did not ask for money. He was so unselfish that he merely, 
pleaded for the general cause of missions. Well, dear friends, 
I have learned that he needs $10,000 to pay the debt on his 
hospital. I want you to give it to me to send to him etc. etc." 
Quite grand isn't it. I gladly promised for I am sick of the 
begging. 

I've made a speech to-day with Bishop Greer. He said it 
was satisfactory, and I guess he will release two Cambridge men 
who are wilUng to go to Salt Lake. 

D. L. & W. R. R. 
Feb. 12. 

I tell you I'm living a rushing Ufe and have no time to fall 
into mischief. I dined with the President of the G. F. S. She 
doesn't know much about the G. F. S. except among working 
girls and asked me a lot of questions about our branch in Erie, 
and yours in Denver. She said Bishop Wells told her last week 
that the G. F. S. wouldn't work in the West because the Western 
girl wouldn't stand the thought of patronage, etc. I said I 
thought that was absurd, no difference between East and West, 
and it all depended upon the kind of patronage. 

I'll be glad when I can turn my back upon those great city 
scenes for the quiet life of the far west. I am going to see the 
people this a.m. that Dr. Mottet has given me letters to, and, 
since my interview with Mr. Morgan I confess it takes all my 
nerve. He said "no" at once and emphatically, so I left a Uttle 
hospital book and fled. 

The lunch with the Outlook editors was both interesting and 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 189 

amusing. Mr. Mabie wasn't there but all the others were and 
they said my conversation was very valuable, etc. etc., and 
the lunch was pretty good. 

N. Y. Feb. 18. 

I'm at St. Thomas' and may the Lord help me to put it to 
them straight, for a lot depends upon it. From Dr. Mottet's 
Ust I got $100. I find that a will of Miss Mount leaves $5000 
to Salt Lake and the money will be paid over to me at once. It 
must be spent for land in Salt Lake on which to build a church, 
so it doesn^t help the hospital very much, but it all swells the 
amount and helps the cause. No time for more now. 

Watkins, N. Y. 
Feb. 21. 

Mrs. is charming and the bishop most interesting in his 

conceited pompous patronage of his ''yoimger brother." I 
made a good speech. That conceited remark is perhaps due not 
to the natural depravity of your son but to the contact with the 
bishop. I'll be glad when it's over and I can preach on some other 
subject for I am getting tired of the same old thing. 

Littell and Sherman of China were there too and they did 
splendidly. It made my work seem pretty poor and mean hear- 
ing of theirs. 

A. gave me '^ Conquest of Canaan." I guess it will do me good 
to read novels awhile and ease my brain for I have been work- 
ing it hard for two months. 

I'm tired of high Hfe and long for the simple life of 444 E. ist 
South and the really good company of my own family. Expect 
me 5.15 Feb. 28. 

At the Conference of the bishops of the Department, in 
Spokane in 1909, it was agreed that the cities of the Pacific 
coast should be appealed to on behalf of the missionary 
sections of the Department no less than the East. This was 
Spalding's idea and he persuaded his associates to approve 



igo FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

it. He succeeded and they authorized him to beg money 
West. Upon the campaign, which no one had tried before^ 
Spalding entered in the fall of 1909. 

Northern Pacific, Sept. 16, 1909. 

We are pulling into Seattle on time. That is hard to believe 
for one who is used to the D. & R. G. To-night the work be- 
gins. 

Oh, if I can only persuade people to help Utah. I think you, 
mother, have never approved of the scheme and yet it does 
seem to me some one ought to begin trying to tell those rich 
western cities their duty. If I fail I shall have to go East after 
Christmas. 

Sept. 19. 

Though everybody is kind nobody has given me anything or 
even promised it. Edwards told me that they all felt poor 
because of entertaining friends who have come from the East 
to see the Fair. Of course I expected less in this district than 
anywhere else because it is a missionary district, and then too 
there seems to be no team play between the churches at all. 
Bishop Keator hadn't done a single thing or arranged with a 
single man — said he was too busy. In spite of his outward 
show of interest he doesn't care. 

Mr. Gowen is a wonderful scholar and though it makes one 
ashamed of his own ignorance to talk to him, still one can learn 
a lot too. He is a High Churchman and yet he takes little stock 
in the opposition to Canon 19, and he knows Church History too 
well to beHeve in the high view of apostoHc succession. He has 
made appointments for me in his own parish. 

Sept. 20. 

Last night I got $1.50 and in the morning $5.00 but more is 
coming. Who should come in after service but Bishop Rowe. 
He is on his way home from Nome and has to come to Seattle 
and change boats. Indeed Mr. Gowen says it would be easier 
if he lived in Seattle, though of course in the East it couldn't 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 19I 

be understood. Sitka is out of the way and few boats for other 
Alaskan points stop there. So it is necessary when starting or 
returning from all his journeys to come to Seattle. He has 
been away since March and looks well and in good spirits. Wfe 
had a fine long visit. 

Sept. 21. ' 

Yesterday I went over to Tacoma and Bishop Keator was 
kindness itself. His strong point is not arranging for things 
ahead but he has a fine secretary. I wish I had written to her 
about my trip, for she would have arranged it all carefully. 
My schedule now is pretty full. I spoke to a fine meeting of 
the Woman's Auxiliary of St. Mark's and they will probably 
give $50 a year, to Provo. 

Even if Utah doesn't get much, I believe I'm helping. Hardly 
any of those parishes pay their apportionment. I'm glad I'ye 
come for of course I must work for the whole Church. The 
rector of St. Paul's wasn't very enthusiastic but consented, so 
I don't suppose I shall have many out. The other men seem 
to welcorne me. 

Sept. 24. 

I like the Bishop very much better. How true it is that 
we like people more as we know them. We had a splendid 
District AuxiHary Meeting, and Bishop Keator did back me up 
nobly. They pledged $120 to pay six months rent at Provo. 
I'm going to a Socialist speechifying to-night. I have about 
$250. from Olympia and that is far more than expenses and thb 
people seem to think I've helped. 

The only trouble is that the Tacoma papers have been very 
sensational. Last night I tried to be fair and charitable. There 
were at least four Mormons there and I've just read the morning 
paper "Bp. S's arraignment of the Mormons." 

Portland, Oct. i. 
Bishop Scadding preached in Trinity Church last Sunday 
asking for money for District missions and got $500. It looks 



X92 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

as if he wanted to get in ahead of me. Dr. Morrison thought 
.them a little less interested because of it, but they gave $77.75. 
That's pretty good isn't it? I went to S. Helena's School 
Chapel. I'm glad Rowland Hall hasn't sisters. They are 
so shy and black, bowing and bobbing. The sisters will 
not eat with a man and when Bishop Scadding is there at 
meal time they send him his portion to a room by himseK. The 
sister superior did not ask me to go to Chapel. Indeed when I 
proposed it she said, "It was not necessary," They do not like 
to have any men except the chaplain about. 

The Bishop is very pleasant but I don't feel quite sure of him. 
He is the kind of man to want all the Episcopal trimmings going. 
I asked him whether I better accept the SociaHst invitation and 
he insisted that I do, and he loaded the reporter. I sent you 
the paper with the unfortunate heading. That wasn't my fault 
but Bishop Scadding's. The article isn't so bad. The SociaHst 
meeting last night was fine. Dr. Morrison went and said he 
felt sure it was a good thing I did it. I have the Woman's 
Auxiliary this p.m. and the Brotherhood tonight; on Sunday 
St. David's in the a.m. and St. Mark's at night. I think in 
the end I shall have raised more money in Portland than in 
Seattle. 

Oct. 16. 

It isn't the speaking and the services but the hospitality 
that is too much of a good thing. I don't know how in 
the world to escape it. People are wonderfully kind to me, 
but being invited out to three meals a day and each one a 
feast is too much. 

I am more than paying expenses but not so far getting enough 
to pay the missionaries. I hope what they say about the value 
of my trip educationally is true. I do hope I shall not have to 
go East. I feel that I ought to be breaking into a lot of 
new territory. If these people here are interested in what I 
have to say then surely I ought to be saying things all the time 
in Utah for that is my field. 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 1 93 

San Francisco, Oct. i8. 

I went with the dining car conductor to his hotel. He said 
impressively to the clerk, "Give Bishop Spalding the best room 
in the house." As I didn't know just how good even that would 
be I didn't object. It was a fine room, neat as a pin with bath 
attached and cost me $2.50. 

If the Board increases the apportionment I may make out with- 
out going East. I do want to stay at home and try to visit some 
new places. I had a fine long talk with Bishop Paddock. He is 
doing great work and is on the move all the time, just a traveUng 
evangelist. But Bishop P. of course hasn't a school and hospital 
to require his attention. There are other parts of Utah besides 
Vernal, etc. where I want to make the Church known. 

Oct. 21. 

I've just come back from Palo Alto and San Mateo. The 
Stanford chaplain told me that there would be thirty or forty, 
but he boosted me as a socialistic lecturer and about 400 
came out and among them the Professor of Political Economy 
and the President. I was pretty badly frightened but there 
was no getting out of it. In San Mateo I spoke to the boys in 
the Orphans' Home and later to the Divinity students. 

I really begin my campaign next Sunday and after that have 
a steady run of appointments. That will seem more natural 
for this week since Sunday I've only made four speeches, which 
seems very idle for me. 

Bishop Nichols is a great man and we have been having a lot 
of fine talks about all sorts of things. 

I've struck this part of the country at a wretched time. The 
city is packed, 275,000 visitors, over 1,000,000 people. No 
chance for missions until the carnival week is over. 

Oct. 25. 
Bishop Nichols gave me $50 which was given him yesterday 
by a man who heard me at Grace Church. I preached at St. 
Paul's, Oakland. 



1 94 FRANKLIN gPENCER SPALDING 

There is no G. F. S. strength here and they seem to think it 
must be the English idea of lady and servant. 

I*m having just the same kind of time as in the north — 
everybody says it will do good, though it don!t help me. The 
people who could give large simis don't do it and the small widow's 
mites, though of course most pleasing to the Lord, don't do much 
of the Lord's work. Had a nice time at St. Mark's Churchman's 
Dinner last night though it was merely used for purposes of en- 
tertainment. 

I guess the salaries are safe now until after the General Cohr 
vention. 

San Mateo, Oct. 30. : 

I've been speaking twice and three times a day. In the morn- 
ing I celebrated the Holy Communion for Fr. Gee, the High 
Churchman, for he has it every day. There were two old ladies 
there and only one received. I asked him whether he thought 
it did much good and he seemed to think it was pleasing to God 
even if people didn't come. I can't see that at all. Christ 
came to saye men^ not to please God by services, etc. "Are 
not the cattle on a thousand hills His ? " 

Sacramento, Nov. 5. . 

I had not expected when I made my plans to come to Sacra- 
mento as it is a Missionary District. The church is a most 
ambitious one of granite but quite unfurnished. We must have 
had 200 people out. The offering for Utah was $17.35. We 
are to have a business men's luncheon at 12.30 and I hope I can 
get a chance to tell them their duty, though probably they will 
be full of other matters. I think I have some good figures. 
The Pacific coast states in the last 9 years have grown 29%, 
the inner states of the Eighth Department have grown 41%, 
While the Pacific states have three times the population, they 
have five times the clergymen and they have six times as many 
communicants. Surely they ought to help the weaker part of 
the Department. 

Bishop Moreland is East begging. 



BEGtJING EAST AND WEST i^J 

Los Angeles ' 
Nov. lo. 

I preached to a big congregation in Christ Church, an enormous 
church with a floor like a theatre, high behind and sloping 
toward the chancel. After service a man gave me $ioo — the 
biggest yet at any service. At night I had another large congre- 
gation at St. Paul's. I'm to go to a clericus this morning and 
then to the Woman's Auxiliary. I go from here to Riverside 
and then to Redlands. Bishop Johnson was splendid yesterday; 

San Diego, Nov. 15. 

It is just two months since I started. I'm glad I came though 
I've not got the money needed. I think the men are all sin- 
cere in saying the addresses, etc. have helped the cause of mis^ 
sions. It looks as if I'd get more than $500 here in the South. 

I love children but the three in this house are too much for 
me. They all talked at once and in high shrill voices. I feel 
ashamed of myself for being nervous over it and suppose it is 
proof that I'm tired. I'm longing to get back. Somehow I 
feel as if I'd said the same thing over and over again and to the 
same people. I'm glad there is only about a week more of it. 

They seem to know little about the G. F. S. here. They have 
the English idea and it makes me realize what a handicap that 
is. "There are no working girls of the G. F. S. type along the 
Pacific, " I hear over and over again. 

Nov. 12. 

I'm getting rather more money here than anywhere else and 
it looks as if my total receipts may be $1200 or $1500. I really 
feel that the campaign has helped the cause of missions anyway* 

Coronado 
Nov. 16. 
This part of the state gives me $200 and more will come. 
Yesterday I went to the ministers' meeting. It was like ours 
in Salt Lake and the old one in Erie and makes me see that 



196 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Christian unity is afar off. In the afternoon the auxiliaries 
from all over came and at night we had a fine service. 

Santa Barbara. 

The rector here is a very nice man but he is timid. He doesn't 
want to crowd the people. He has so much trouble raising his 
apportionment that he is afraid to give or encourage specials, 
etc. etc. He is a Berkeley Seminary graduate and I'm wonder- 
ing what they do with men there, for they are all aUke from 

M to M . They are nice and good but inefi&cient. I 

preached last night, small congregation and got less than $15. 
and all the rector's fault. At St. John's, Los Angeles, is a General 
Seminary man, and he is fine, as interested and enthusiastic as 
I am about getting money. , 

So far I've raised about $1500 but more may come. I'm the 
first missionary bishop that has ever spoken in any of these 
places. I think it has been useful for the general cause. 

After the General Convention of 1907 Spalding again 
visited the East in the hope of raising $15,000 for his field. 
It was a year of financial panic when some clergymen were 
asking their vestries to reduce their salaries to save their 
work from loss, and devoted laymen were making imusual 
sacrifices. He got more money than any of the other 
missionaries, but it was so far below his needs, only one- 
fifth of what he asked, that he doubted whether it paid to 
stay in the East and work so hard. Moreover, he decided 
that the General Convention years are bad years for rais- 
ing money, there being too much competition. He stirred 
up interest, however, in the Cambridge School and else- 
where, and one man, destined to become one of his most 
devoted and intelligent assistants, offered himself for ser- 
vice in Utah. The coming of that one man, like that of 
St. Andrew and St. Philip, makes financial results, however 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 197 

necessary, seem insignificant. This trip judged by that 
alone was a triumphant success. 

Again in 191 2 he was compelled to go East for money. He 
had asked the Board to put Utah on the same basis as Alaska 
and the Philippines so that he might stay at home. Fail- 
ing that, he had to raise himself the $3000 for salaries which 
were needed over and above what the Board gave ; and he 
tried also to raise enough to pay the debt on Rowland Hall. 

New York, Jan. 18, 191 2. 

I inquired about a new rochet and the very cheapest is $23 
and I do hate to spend it. I guess the two I have will have to 
do, though they are rather big and long for dress parade. Have 
ordered a new long coat for I find my best suit was really shabby. 
It will cost $28 which is dirt cheap. 

I'm the guest of the Diocese of New York at the Diocesan 
House. They have a number of rooms and take in poor bishops. 

I've just had a perfectly fine time at lunch with Bishop Greer 
and his family. He is just as simple and genuine as can be. 
Strange to say I believe he was nice to me because of the saucy 
speech I made in Cincinnati when I called New York provincial. 

I'll be glad when this Liberal Club is over for that ends my 

speeches on Socialism, etc. Miss turned me down hard, 

though she may relent. She said that she had heard that I was 
a "spiritualist." I said I never had been accused of that be- 
fore though people had called me a SociaKst. "Well," she said, 
"perhaps it was that, do they mean the same thing? I'm sorry 
you are one whatever it is." And think of the Church depending 
on ignorance like that ! 

To His Sister 

Jan. 19. 

I was invited to address the Civitas Club of Brooklyn on 
"Insurgency in Religion," and I was informed that they were 
a very radical lot of young and old women. The President asked 
me to luncheon. It was a very elegant luncheon, and your 



igS FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

classmate sat as near me as she could, for her hat was at least 
a yard in circumference. She is a Socialist. I asked her when 
I had a chance, for she was a pretty brisk talker herself and the 
six others kept so steadily at it that I listened most of the time, 
what her husband thought of Socialism. She said rather sadly 
that he was a business man and though he admitted there was 
much truth in what she believed, still he had his living to make 
and that business men couldn't be expected to make sacrifices 
for principles like clergymen. She said that she felt that it was 
the high and noble privilege of clergymen to starve rather than 
lower their ideals of justice, but not for business men like her 
husband. I timidly suggested that when the living of other 
missionaries was dependent on some clergymen getting money 
from rich men to support them it became a larger matter than 
personal martyrdom. But she seemed to think I had no argu- 
ment on my side because all the clergymen and their families 
ought to be martyrs gladly too. However, they all seemed to be 
rather unhappy about their unprogressive husbands who were so 
busy in business that the wives had to do the thinking for them. 
I spoke to 200 women and then had a fine time answering 
questions just as bluntly as I could, trying to rip up whatever 
seemed to be faddy and insincere and they took it O.K. I'm 
to get $25 for Utah. 

:.,■■' Jan. 19. 

Yesterday I rose to the heights for there is nothing higher 

than A. at B. St. 's House is not a parish house but a priests' 

house. The priests live in it and have their confessions there. 
A most luxurious place. I was rather disappointed to be told 
that most of the money to build the hduse was given by the 
poor. All the poor get out of it is an invitation to a reception 
now and then or to a meal. At supper one of the men spoke of 
the Christian life as otie of '^mortification and prayer," but when 
I, visited his room I found that he had three rooms and a private 
bath, rugs, pictures and a piano, and I asked if that was what 
they called "mortification." The poor Father laughed himself. 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 1 99 

I went to Low Mass at the high altar and who should turn up 

but Fr. who used to be in — — and - — - and nearly wrecked 

every parish he touched. He had merely come in to ''borrow 
an altar" so that he could say mass. And so while the main 
service was going on at the high altar, he was going through the 
same performance at a side altar with one woman watching him. 
But the low mass wasn't a circumstance to the high mass, three 
priests, incense and 80 lighted candles. The priest made a 
special appeal at night for more money for the candle fund be- 
cause he said it cost a great deal ! After I preached and again 
during the Magnificat there was great incensing etc. He ad- 
mitted the use of incense was a survival of the days when it was 
used to overcome the stench of burning flesh at burnt sacrifices. 
I also lectured on Mormonism in the parish hall. 

There is nothing about F. S. S. to worry for — only whether 
he can make good at the job. 

Jan. 22. 

I had a wonderful time at the Grace Church service. It was 
packed and the service beautiful. After the service there was a 
big reception of old friends in the vestry — Erie people, and 
what do you think ! Bishop Nibley of Salt Lake, Wilfred Lang- 
ton of Logan, Lawyer Watkins of Vernal — all big Mormons. 
They said I had been fair and they wanted to thank me. There 
was a big account in the Times and I suppose Miss Mason and 
her crowd will be angry at me, but I don't care. I know most of 
the people who heard my sermon felt I was putting it in the 
right way and that my policy was better than hers, so I felt pretty 
good though I don't know yet about money. 

Mr. Nock thinks I better send my article on Christian Unity 
to the Atlantic Monthly and he says he believes it is good enough 
to print. Wouldn't it be grand to have an article in the At- 
lantic. And the good thing about that is that if they accepted 
it it would really be worth printing. 

Charley Slattery was fine ! Dr. Bliss, representing the 
Christian Socialist Fellowship, wants me to speak again on Social- 



200 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ism and the Church, but I dechned, for I'm through with that or 
at least will be after next Sunday night. 

The report of the speech at the Liberal Club makes me very 
unhappy. The reporter happened to be a Salt Lake ex-Mor- 
mon and he exaggerated out of all proportion references to Salt 
Lake and Utah conditions. 

Feb. I. 

I must confront Miss Mason and her council to-morrow at 

lo, and may the Lord give me grace to keep my temper and have 

a right judgment. 

To His Cousin 

P. R. R. Feb. 3. 

Your letter came at a good time for I had just gone through 
three hours of it with your friends, "The Interdenominational 
Council of Women for Christian and Patriotic Service.*' They, 
too, nearly accused me of being a Mormon in disguise, and 
with one or two exceptions, a more bigoted group of women I 
never saw. 

Oh women, gentle, loving, sweet, 

I am not fit to touch your feet ; 

But when you scrap, I know, I've felt 

You can't help punching 'neath the belt. 

You can't beUeve all you read in the papers. The Times re- 
porter was an old Utah boy whose parents were Mormons and 
one of the other reporters was a prominent Mormon from Vernal. 
On the whole they did fairly well, though they suppressed part 
of my criticism, which, I suppose, we would do in their place. 

I am working hard as I can but not getting much money. 
Why is it that Presbyterians give more than Episcopalians? 
Perhaps they think it will take more to save them than to save 
Episcopahans. 

To His Mother 

Feb. 18. 

The preaching does very little good directly. The private 
calls and talks are the thing. New York is already getting ready 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 20I 

for the General Convention. They say it will cost $50,000 to 
entertain us. Somehow I feel that it would be better to give 
us simple fare and more for missions. 

I've been working at my noonday addresses in Old Trinity. 
Of course I can see that I'll be using old material, but why not, 
it's the best I have. The general subject is loyalty to Christ's 
requirements of us. I know it's a great chance and perhaps I 
ought to have stopped preaching for Utah and gone off for a 
quiet week, but I don't see how I could. Since I've tried to 
do my duty perhaps God will help me. 

Feb. 26. 

The first Trinity address is over. It is a wet day and the 
congregation wasn't very best, though they said for the day it 
was good. I thought I did badly, though I said all I had planned 
to say in fifteen minutes. There were 460 people in the church, 
for they always count them. The first has been a good bit of 
a strain, and then too I guess a little healthy disappointment of 
pride because it wasn't the great crowd etc. that I've sort of 
dreamed of. But that will make it all the easier to-morrow. 

I think I've raised about $7,000 so far. I ought not to be 
discouraged — only it isn't like it was in the old days when I 
got $40,000. 

Trenton, March 2. 

I finished at Trinity. Dr. Manning was there for the last 
sermon — for he usually doesn't come — and he seemed to think 
my "message" as he called it was useful. The sexton gave me 
these figures: Mon. 467, Tues. 636, Wed. 733, Thurs. 702, Fri. 

758. 
I lectured here last night and two Mormons who were there 

didn't like what I said. Afterwards they told me because I 

wasn't wanted enough in Utah to have the people care to pay 

my salary I had to come East to beg for it. I went to see them 

to-day and spent two hours telling them what the Christian 

religion really is. I don't know how much good it did. 



202 FRANEXIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Phila. March 7. 

I confess I can't understand our Church. At Englewood the 
member of another denomination sent $50 but from all the 
Church people who heard the same ** burning words" $10, $5, 
$3, which don't make up the $50 by $20. At Washington they 
said they are convinced that *'I am doing a great work." Dr. 
McKim called me a ''noble man." But nobody said a word 
about paying my expenses and the offering was for General 
Missions. Wilmington was a bright exception, they put a plate 
by the door and Kirkus told them to do their duty and I got $100. 

I had a fine visit with the Indian Commissioner who seems a 
splendid fellow and who is up against a tough job. President 
Taft has yielded to the poHticians etc. and gone back on him. 
He saw that there was a dehberate scheme for the Roman Church 
to get control of more government schools and he felt that he 
ought to stop it. So he issued an order that in U. S. Schools 
when on duty members of orders, etc. should not wear the garb 
of their orders. It seemed a perfectly fair proposal because the 
schools were not R. C. Schools, but U. S. schools, and something 
had to be done to make that fact quite clear. Well there was 
a row. Cardinal Gibbons et al protested, threatened the dis- 
favor of the Church, the loss of the Irish vote, etc. And Taft 
revoked the order without even consulting Mr. Valentine on 
the merits of the question. What cowards these men are. I 
get to be more of a SociaKst all the time. 

Well, I must tell you about the noble statesman from Utah, 
Reid Smoot. I got there about 5.30 and he met me at the door 
and was most cordial. We had a very elegant meal. He says 
polygamy is absolutely dead. He has helped kill it and has 
had a hard fight to do it. He declared that he believed im- 
plicitly in the whole Mormon religion, in the Book of Mormon 
and Joseph Smith. I told him about my investigation of the 
Pearl of Great Price and he had nothing to say. Just think of 
it ; he is one of the great statesmen of the nation ! I got quite 
a lot from him about the economic features of Mormonism. 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 203 

According to him the Church was always the backer of the richer 
men, never of the poorer. If he is a great Repubhcan, I'm a 
SociaUst. 

New York, March i6. 

I heard WiUiams yesterday noon in Old Trinity and he is won- 
derful, I'm not within a thousand miles of his class. He told 
me of one parish where it took $35,000 worth of automobiles to 
bring twelve vestrymen to a meeting in which they decided that 
they couldn't pay their apportionment of $148. Oh ! why don't 
those who have help ! I guess altogether I've got about $10,000. 
I have a lot of personal calls to make in New York and that is 
the toughest part. But it's got to be done. If I get that Uni- 
versity House at Salt Lake it must come from one person. 

Yesterday was a very slow and profitless day unless the seminar 
at the G. F. S. profited by my lecture to them on ''SociaHsm and 
the Church," by invitation of Professor Hunt. 

I'm wearying of saying the same thing over and over again. 
But I have actually over $12,000 which will pay Rowland Hall 
debt, the paving taxes and with what I have in annual pledges 
the salaries for the year. So I'm glad and grateful. 

On Saturday I visited the Mormon headquarters and had a 
most hopeless interview with Professor Laughton, the head of 
it. He said he would take Joseph Smith's word ahead of all 
the scholars on earth. If any number of Egyptologists said a 
thing was different than Joseph Smith, then Smith was right. 

Boston, April 6. 
I enjoyed going to the Three Hour Service at St. Paul's. 
There was a bigger congregation there than was at Trinity, New 
York, for it averaged 800 all the time and once got over 1000. 
I caught the midnight train to Boston, and since it was driving 
wet snow I committed my first act of extravagance. I took a 
cab. I think I have at least $12,000. I've taken out nothing 
for travehng expenses but have paid my own way. I think I 
made more good future friends, but unless the canons are changed 



204 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

the task of the Domestic bishops is bound to get harder and 
harder because all the pressure of the Board is against Specials 
in the interest of the apportionment, and with an increased ap- 
propriation of $200,000 for China I don't quite know what we 
shall do. 

To His Mother 

Cincinnati, April 21. 
You must know it first. Mrs. Emery has promised $25,000 
for the University House in Salt Lake. Isn't it grand, grand, 
grand. She doesn't want it put into the papers nor a fuss made 
over it, but she says she can do it and is glad to. I knew after 
I saw the houses at Ann Arbor that $10,000 wasn't enough. But 
the $25,000 is almost too good to be true, so you'll understand 

how I feel. 

Indianapolis, April 24. 

I went last night to a suffragist meeting and spoke in favor 
of woman's suffrage because I was sununoned as an expert 
from Utah and Colorado. But I told them that it was a lot 
easier to claim rights than to perform duties and that woman's 
suffrage would not make Indiana perfect right away as they 
seemed to think it would. 

I seem to have raised on my trip East $14,759.87 in addition 
to what Mrs. Emery gave. $1400 of that is definitely specified 
for Garfield. 

This chapter would not be complete without the record 
of a conviction of Bishop Spalding that was born of his 
experience in begging East and West. It is absolutely 
impossible, he held, for the same man to work in Utah and 
also to raise money by talking about it. In Utah, his 
usefulness depends upon his trying to see the best in the 
Mormons; the East expects him to expose the worst. 
Even though he tries hard to be fair in his presentations of 
his case, distorted reports are sent back and his influence 
is weakened. The official Mormon paper declared, "The 



BEGGING EAST AND WEST 205 

concluding act of all of Dr. Spalding's Eastern addresses, 
namely, an appeal for funds wherewith to ^ fight the Mor- 
mon Monster,' fully explains the cause of his activity." 
*^ I want to send that to John Wood," he wrote his mother, 
^Ho show how hard it is for me to talk in the East about the 
Mormons and then come back to Utah and try to reach the 
Mormons." The charge was not just, but Spalding rec- 
ognized that it was inevitable that the Mormons should 
think so. He did not believe that this was pecuHar to the 
missionary to the Mormons; it applied to any Western 
missionary. The whole spirit of the West despises the man 
who "goes East to knock — not to boost." The pleader 
for money, to meet the spiritual destitution and moral 
depravity of the grandest and most promising part of the 
United States, finds, on his return, that he has lost the 
respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. 



XIV 

The Church in the Mining Camp 



((jy. 



VvE a text for a new missionary sermon. 'And a certain 
man found him wandering in the fields and the man asked 
him, What seekest thou and he said, I seek my brethren/ 
Joseph wasn^t seeking the man to ask him for information, 
he was probably day dreaming or thinking of his dream and 
his future; he had forgotten the welfare of his brethren 
until the man met him. That is what I have to do — meet 
people and ask them what they are seeking, wake them out 
of their forgetfulness and show them that the real glory of 
life is to seek our brethren. What do you think of it?" 
Spalding believed that if the Church is to win men to 
Christ and His righteousness, she must go where the men 
are. In the mining camps of the Western states are great 
numbers of the brainiest, the most ambitious and the man- 
liest men in the world. In Tonopah or Goldfield, Nevada, 
for example, there were probably more college graduates 
than in any place of equal size in the United States. They 
were not there for life. As soon as they made their stake, 
or reported on a property for their employers, or surveyed 
a claim or town site, or installed the machinery for a mine, 
they left for the coast, East or West. In many cases they 
become the heads of great enterprises, leaders in business 
and politics. It was to such men he went, as they wan- 
dered with their heads full of ambitious schemes, and re- 

206 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 207 

minded them that the glory of manhood was to seek their 
brethren. 

Tacoma, Nev., Jan. 7, 1906. 

I had a fine service at the mine of the Salt Lake Copper Co. 
Mr. Fisher, a friend of mine, is superintendent and he arranged 
things. I slept in his bed and ate with the men in the men's 
house where we also had service. As Mr. Fisher says it's like 
washing Hnen — it will probably get dirty again, but it is a 
good thing to get it clean once in awhile. 

The mine is near the top of a mountain and the views of 
the desert are wonderful. You can see Salt Lake fifty miles 
away in one direction and range after range of the Nevada 
mountains in the other direction. Mr. Fisher let the men 
come to the service without its counting against their time and 
wages. There had never been a service in the camp. The 
mess room was crowded and they all sang splendidly. 

Though this town is in Nevada I thought I had better not 
go through without giving the Bishop of Nevada a lift. I had 
to come into Nevada and then back to Utah to reach the mine. 
When I came back to Tacoma I found they had had no meet- 
ings except once a year, when the Roman priest comes and so 
I thought instead of going back to Salt Lake at one p.m. I'd wait 
for the two a.m. train and hold a service in the httle school 
house. I got the key from Mr. Catlin who is a trustee, put up 
notices in the Post oflo^ce and store and told all the people. 
That wasn't hard for there are not a dozen houses in the poor 
desolate Httle place. After supper, I dusted out the room, built 
a fire, borrowed some lamps, and at eight o'clock rang the bell 
and put on my robes. For ten minutes nobody came and then 
three people and a baby. So I began. After a bit, two children 
arrived and when I was haK through the sermon another man 
came in. It really didn't seem to have been much appreciated 
but I congratulated myself upon having done my duty, and I 
felt that I'd not lost much time as the two a.m. train reaches 
Salt Lake before nine a.m. so I'd still have a full day there. The 



2o8 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

railroad agent promised to wake me up for half an hour before 
train time and so I got a room and went to bed. My room was 
supposed to be one of the best, No. i, but it was easy to see I 
wasn't the first to lie between the sheets on that bed. My feet 
ran against something rough which I first thought was the tag 
end of the coarse blanket but I put down my hand and fished 
out a filthy dirty pair of old socks which I supposed the last 
lodger had kicked off. I had rather a hard time going to sleep. 
Well, to end the story the railroad man forgot to call me and so 
I am rewarded for my virtue by having to stay in this forsaken 
place \mtil one, not reaching Salt Lake until seven p.m. where 
there are a thousand things I ought to do. 

I wonder whether it pays to be good. I have lost twenty-four 
hours of most valuable time just because I held service in the 
little town where it wasn't appreciated. IVe a book to read 
and perhaps I can think out a sermon. 

When he had left, the miners of their own accord took 
up a collection of $52.50 and sent it to him with the request 
that he use it for himself. "Isn't that remarkable? It 
comes in very handy for there has been no money in the 
Bishop's Charity Fimd for some time." 

There were camps where the Church had been planted 
and then died. A living, hustling mining camp after a 
time becomes a sad, discouraged place. After the mines 
have become exhausted or have been shut down because 
the water could not be pumped out, or the ore is too low 
grade for profitable treatment, all the capitalists and well- 
paid laborers leave. A few merchants, a few prospectors, 
or some who own mines or prospects and with dij0&culty 
keep up their assessment, work and live on in the hope of 
making a profitable sale, a saloon keeper or two — these 
with the women and children remain. There is usually a 
school house and sometimes an unexpectedly large number 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 209 

of pupils. The Episcopal Church has usually departed 
with the capitahsts. The Methodist Church lingers on in 
some places, with a cheaper minister, until at last there is 
no church at all. Some lay saint will keep the Sunday 
school going just as long as possible, and read the service 
at fimerals, and prepare the abandoned church for a service 
when the bishop or other wandering evangelist comes. 

E. & P. R.R. 

May 23, 1906. 

That isn't Erie and Pittsburg, though it looks like it but 
Eureka & Palisade, a little narrow gauge train. I am the only 
passenger except the President of the Rebekah Lodge who is 
going about cheering and strengthening the sisters. I'll have 
to stop now until the next stop for the E. & P. isn't the smooth- 
est train in the world. 

I didn't try to call on all the people for there wasn't time. 
In spite of the rain and cold we had a pretty good congregation. 
But the singing was awful. Among the remains of the past 
when there were thousands of people in the town and the church 
was booming, are some copies of musical settings to the canticles. 
Two women sang them, taking the base, tenor, contralto and 
soprano and doing the chorus as well. They have forgotten in 
Eureka when to stand up and when to sit down ; they had only 
old prayer books and no one knew the evening prayer responses 
after the first two and till the last two. There is an old Presby- 
terian minister there now. He is on the pension list and so can 
afford to stay on a small salary, though we have more members 
than they have. The train has stopped so few times I can't 
write a long letter. I had a baptism and a confirmation. 

As no one was able to teU when one of those dead towns 
might rise from the dead it troubled Bishop Spalding to 
know what to do. Pioche, Nevada, had once been a live 
camp. When the ore failed and mining so far from the 



2IO FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

railroad did not pay, the rectory wa^ sold and the church 
taken down and moved to a more promising town. Then 
with the building of the railroad, the old mines of Pioche 
were opened. When Bishop Spalding began work in Utah, 
Pioche was a live town again and needed a new church and 
rectory. There were also new camps springing up. 

Manhattan, Nev. 
May 30. 

Manhattan is a wonderful place. In January there was noth- 
ing here at all and now, though most of the people live in tents, 
there are well built houses too and I have a comfortable room 
in the Nevada Hotel. 

Tonopah, June 2. 

I went to Goldfield last night and had service in the Masonic 
Hall. I took up the collection for missions $15.65. Bishop A. 
made a very unfavorable impression at Goldfield. They felt 
if he would encourage them and promise some help they might 
get going at a time when there was no Protestant church in 
town, but he said, "This isn't my business. The spiritual 
privileges you want are for you, not for me ; if you want them 
youll have to pay for them ! '^ This doesn't sound very s)mci- 
pathetic, does it ? 

Doubtless that bishop held the theory, shared by many in 
the East, that money should be spent on places in propor- 
tion as they are likely ultimately to become self-supporting 
and permanent commimities. "This,'' wrote Spalding, 
"cuts out the mining camp. However wise such a policy 
may be there are exceptions. We know that in a college 
town students will remain but a short time, but we realize 
the great importance of influencing them while we can. 
A hospital is not a place where men live, but we put into 
our hospitals a chaplain who tries to cure soul as well as 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 211 

body. Into every mining camp the Church should go, 
realizing that she has a chance to win for God hundreds of 
men. They are our brothers and sisters and they need 
us. ' ' He beHeved that in the new camps, even at their worst, 
there was a respect for law and order and a regard for life 
and property unknown on the frontier forty years before. 
This was because of the work of the Church in the past, in 
the old camps from which the new arrivals came. The 
Church must follow those people and stand by them, and 
they will stand for her. 

Sep. 25, 1906. 

At SHverton most of the leading ladies of the Guild have 
adopted Christian Science. "We have been spiritually starved," 
said their President, "and had to have some food." We may 
win them back if we can only get a good man. I wonder why 
we can't be as earnest in teaching the truth as these Christian 
Scientists are in teaching their poor, shallow, partial philosophy. 
Most of them didn't come to church, because they couldn't 
stay to communion. They have risen beyond the need of s>tii- 
bols. I visited them all one by one and listened to the rub- 
bish. It is pathetic how they are taken in. The President will 
not leave the Church and she is going to read the books I send. 
I think I helped her see a good bit of truth. I never realized 
before what utter rot the "Science" is. The holy, precious 
thoughts in Mrs. Eddy's book she showed me, were so iQogical, 
untrue, a constant confusion of thought by using words in dif- 
ferent senses. As far as drugs are concerned, however, I'm a 
Christian Scientist myself. The whole Christian Science phi- 
losophy seems to me to depend on a false idea of the love of God. 
They think God's love is a kind which relieves us of work and 
pain and struggle. But it did not relieve Christ. 

I rode horse-back to Ouray. Pretty good congregation and 
two confirmed. I spent next morning calling and at one started 
back on horse back for Silverton, twenty-four miles, and arrived 



212 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

six thirty-five. In Ouray are thirty-eight conununicants and no 
clergyman. 

TONOPAH 

April I, 1907. 

The church was crowded at both services. Johnes is doing 
well and is a good mixer. The church is very pretty and com- 
plete and the chancel is beautiful. It might be a little larger 
in its seating capacity and yet perhaps it will take care of all 
who come. The Ladies' Guild voted me one hundred dollars be- 
cause I hadn't taken the offering yesterday but let it go to the 
debt. 

The consecration service is arranged for to-morrow. On 
Wednesday I am to have a lecture on Socialism for the miners' 
union and expect to have an exciting time, for the feeling is 
running high and I may be able to do some real good. 

Rhyolite, 
April 9, 1909. 

We had two services to-day in the Masonic Hall which holds 
about sixty people. A. M. Keene and his wife are fine Church 
people and he used to be a lay reader in Wyoming. I went 
calling yesterday with Mr. Keene. There are two girls who 
went to Wolfe Hall. The proprietor of the Mayflower Hotel 
knew father in Pueblo years ago. We have organized St. 
Thomas' Mission. It's like Thomas — a little doubtful at the 
start but we hope it will come strong in the end. 

I wish we had a good man for southern Nevada, though the 
trouble is that each town is such a tough proposition that a 
man would have to give it all his time, and yet there are not 
enough people to justify that. 

Las Vegas, April 12, 1910. 

The service last night was the first Church service ever held 
in Las Vegas. I wish I could stay down here for six months as 
Bishop Tuttle stayed in Montana towns, I believe I could get a 
couple of churches built, though perhaps the interest is only due 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 213 

to the fact that I'm a novelty and do not stay. I am visiting 
about twice as many points as I did last time I came to Nevada, 
and that means more places to be revisited. 

Bishops tell big lies about men. I guess Bishop Funsten 
thinks I've lied about A., for I've found out more things about 
him than I ever suspected when I recommended him to him. 
But what is one to do to get rid of a poor man, or one who is 
not adapted to the place? You must always hope that he will 
do better somewhere else. 

I hope Mr. Gray who is coming from Cambridge may settle 
here and build a church, for the place will be permanent and 
probably grow steadily. 

PiocHE, Nevada 
April 14. 

The Court room was packed and they put the children behind 
me, up near the judge's desk. There were 17 boys and 16 girls 
and they moved about a good deal, though on the whole they 
behaved pretty well. There were a lot of babies in the congre- 
gation. The people would not leave the windows open for good 
air. Just when I was trying my best to preach my hardest 
they brought to the jail, which isn't six feet away, a drunken 
man who hollered "murder" and a number of men had to get 
up and go to the door to see, while I lost the attention of every- 
body. It was hard work getting it back again. They thought 
there was a fire, which is indeed a serious thing in a mining camp. 
^ This is an old deserted camp which is waking up and may be 
a good camp again. 

Gold Spring, 
April 17. 

At Gold Spring the only place in which to hold service was 
the school house, a tent twelve by fourteen. We got twenty 
chairs in and had a congregation of thirty- two, nearly half the 
population. The music was led by a phonograph. It was 
quite grand to be singing "Abide with me" with "the Mendels- 
sohn Quartet of New York." "Nearer my God to Thee" was 



214 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

a little high but we made it with an effort. It was the first 
religious service ever held in the place. Truly we are in the 
West because they need us, not because they want us. Mighty 
little enthusiasm here or at Fay and I couldn't get the boarding 
house, which was the best place here, for the manager and his 
wife said it would be too much trouble to move the table in and 
out. They are Christian Scientists. 

who has taken me in here, is an agnostic, full of 

Spencer, etc., and won't have the children baptized for there is 
no sense in it. We had a friendly argument and he said I made 
out a more sensible case for it than he had heard before. 

I went through the mine and the mill and they seem to have 
a lot of ore which runs twenty or thirty dollars to the ton gold. 

Caliente, April 20. 

Last night a new distraction presented itself. Usually the 
babies are hard to compete against but last night there were 
two dogs, and one of them during my sermon amused himself 
by standing on his hind legs and walking up and down the aisle 
just in front of me. I had hard work keeping my face straight. 

I gave my lecture on Socialism on Monday night to so fine 
and attentive a congregation that it was a pleasure to speak. 
In the afternoon I got the Ladies' Guild organized and they 
will keep up the Sunday school. I baptized two children. 
Both have saloon keepers for fathers ; I hope it will do good. 

Battle Mountain, May 21. 

The people come out so well and Mr. Thomas is doing so 
splendidly that it is inspiring. The new church here is going 
to be very nice. The corner stone is to be laid to-morrow, 
rather a curious thing, for the church is nearly finished except 
the corner where the stone is to go in. 

About thirty miles west of here we had the first service held 
for years. There was a good crowd in the hall though I'm 
afraid most of the men went back to drinking and gambling as 
soon as it was over. At Palisade a man was at church and after 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 215 

service was over, he got drunk, bought two bottles of whiskey, 
and was killed on the way home by the rail-road — a terrible 
sequence, for the service can have done him little good. 

Bishop Spalding believed that the Church must be repre- 
sented in a mining camp first of all by men. "It all de- 
pends upon getting the right man. A poor, puny ritualist 
would not be much better than the graduates of the Moody 
Bible School who are in charge of some Congregational 
Churches. '^ The men, then, must have a message they 
believe in, and without cant or indifference are living them- 
selves the life they recommend. One of the weaknesses 
of the work in mining camps is the timidity of the start. 
It takes capital to go into the mining business, and the 
Church must put in the capital to back up the man. "The 
saloon has lights, shelter for the homeless men. Let the 
Church open her reading room. Dance halls and cheap, 
low theatres are inviting patronage. Let the Church pro- 
vide decent and healthful recreation. The mining camp 
knows no distinction between Sunday and week day, and 
if the men have a chance and real inducements are given, 
they will come to worship, or to hear a lecture, or to listen 
to good music any night in the week.'' 

The capital which Spalding possessed and was most 
willing to invest in this enterprise was his own virile man- 
hood and a message he believed in and lived out ; one thing 
more — he had the ability to lecture. At one place men 
came to him and said that they were glad to hear him 
preach, but, since they had no entertainments, would he 
not after preaching give a lecture. He had only two 
lectures at that time which seemed to meet the situation ; 
one was on "Spiritualism'' and the other on "Christian 
Socialism," lectures he had given in Erie. This lecture on 
Socialism seemed to strike a popular need and he was 



2l6 FBANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

requested to give it again and again in the mining camps. 
Labor conditions are bound to be uncertain in mining 
camps, because every miner knows just what the value of 
the output is, something that his brother toiler in other 
industries does not know, and about nine-tenths of the 
alleged capitalists are gamblers and misrepresent rather 
than represent capital. When therefore a man appeared 
who seemed to think straight and to have the courage of 
his convictions, the miners eagerly turned to him for light 
upon their economic problems. To Bishop Spalding this 
move on the part of the men, many of whom he had never 
before been able to reach, seemed to be a great opportunity 
for the representative of the Church to stand for justice 
and restraint and help others to do so. 

When his mother read that he had been speaking on Social- 
ism, she expressed the fear that he would be misunderstood. 
He replied. May 25, 1908, "The Socialism doesn't seem to 
endanger my standing, for you see, here is an invitation to 
a big church on the strength of it, though I'm not to blame 
for all the talk in that direction for I definitely declined those 
invitations and I have, refused to sign any of their papers or 
be associated with the movement officially, so don't worry." 
A letter had appeared in the Salt Lake papers criticizing 
him for showing interest in Socialism, and the SociaHsts 
elsewhere, following up this clue, invited him to write 
for their publication and to speak at their convention. 
Spalding became, as we have seen, a Socialist in Erie, be- 
lieving in a new social order based upon cooperation in 
place of competition, but further than that he had not gone 
until he came to grips with the workingmen in the mining 
camps. As he knew from his parishioners, the workingmen 
in Erie, their industrial problem, so he learned in the 
mining camps from the miners themselves the situation 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 217 

confronting them. Spalding's approach to the social 
question led partly through theories and books but chiefly 
through men and facts. The Commimist Manifesto which 
he read at this time brought truth and hope. It made 
him see that social salvation might come through the 
masses. He beUeved for a long time that the Christian 
Church exists for the sole purpose of saving the human race. 
So far she had failed but Socialism as taught by Wm. 
Liebknecht's "No Compromise/* showed him how she 
might succeed. 

Myton/ Utah, Oct. 22, 1908. 

I had a service every night but one, and then I gave a popular 
lecture on my trip abroad which they seemed to enjoy, and so 
I've arranged with the Mormon Bishop to give it to the people 
in the State House on Monday night. These people don't 
have much in the way of entertainment and I thought it would 
do them more good than a sermon. 

I had a successful time in Theodore except financially. In 
the morning I confirmed a nice woman and had Holy Communion 
for her and one other faithful woman. At two I attended guild 
meeting — there were only four members — and helped tie a 
quilt. Then at four under the auspices of the "Local" I gave 
a lecture on "socialism" to a good big crowd, and at night we 
had the hall full and a number of "Comrades" heard some 
religion. My lecture on "Christianity and Socialism" seemed 
to bring out the people and I hope I put enough Christianity in 
to make it useful to the Church as well as to the state. 

D. & G. R., Sep. 3. 
There was a cloud burst or something like it which made the 
little Price River a raging torrent and simply cut out of exist- 

^ Some of the towns were not mining camps. But the letter postmarked 
at those places refer to the subject of this chapter, and are used for that 
reason in this place. 



2l8 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

ence a piece of the road bed. There were eight trains blocked 
on the west side and nine on the east and so it was great ex- 
citement meeting them and counting them up. Their pas- 
sengers shouted to us that they were glad we were out of the 
way and we shouted to them that they were the interferers 
with trajB&c. However, at Helper Mr. Shepherd, the Secretary 
of the Y. M. C. A., and his good wife gave me a fine supper and 
I had a splendid congregation. It was mighty good of the men 
to come for they were tired out with all the extra work and 
irregular hours. 

This Mr. Shepherd, the heroic worker among railroad 
men, said to the writer in August, 1916, "Bishop Spalding ! 
There was a man whom the boys loved. I could pack 
the hall for him any time of day or night on an hour's notice 
when he would speak, and such a preacher ! I never heard 
the Gospel put as that man preached it." Spalding has 
been criticized by those who knew nothing of his untiring 
toil, for neglecting his chief work in the interest of Socialism. 
As his letters show conclusively, he was primarily a preacher 
and missionary, and lectured only because he could reach 
men that way. **It seems a good idea," he wrote, "to get 
up lectures for the people who do not go to church, both 
as a means of getting a chance to talk to them and also 
to advertise the church services." In mining and rail- 
road towns where the work is continuous, one shift of 
men is always off duty. If men could be reached at 
all, the day was as the night. So we find him lecturing 
and preaching at aU hours. 

" We had a splendid service at Helper last night — more 
attended the service than the lecture." On Feb. 8, 1900, 
he writes, " I'm to have two services to-morrow and am to 
lecture on Socialism on Monday night. I ought to have 
a chance to speak to some non-Church goers. " 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 219 

Theodore, Feb. 9, 1910. 

The scheme to speak on Socialism one night if all the Social- 
ists would come to church worked well, for we had the biggest 
crowd I ever had here — very nearly the entire population, I 
think. The socialist meeting was fine and the subject gives me 
a chance to work in a few observations on the false socialism of 
the Mormon Church. In my lecture on spirituaHsm I have a 
chance to expose tactfully mediums and psychics like J. Smith. 
I lecture at one to-day. I am staying with A. , He is the pub- 
lisher and editor of the B. Record — the brightest paper in this 
part of the country. They live in two rooms, husband and 
wife and two children, and I have a cot in the general room 
(dining room, sitting room and kitchen). I got up first this 
morning and built the fire. Then he got up and together we 
went to the office and started the fire there while Mrs. W. and 
the two boys were dressing. Yet she is always happy and 
cheerful. 

The worst thing about traveling this time of year is the diffi- 
culty of keeping clean, for you can't take a bath in a lard pail 
of water and that is about as much as you can keep melted. 
I'm beginning to look forward, not only to seeing Sarah, but to 
the bath tub. After lunch I had a chat with some Socialist 
comrades, for they seem always more numerous than Christian 
disciples. I'm to go to the Guild this afternoon and get the 
Mission Study class started. They have eight members and 
have the books you ordered sent to them. They are very 
nice earnest women and most enthusiastic. We simply must try 
to help them build a church this year. 

Randlett, Feb. 12. 
I got my mail on my return here and your letters were most 
welcome. Somebody who signs his name AngHcan has written 
a very hot letter about my address I made at the Y. M. C. A. 
I suppose after being set up by the ^ve years anniversary, etc., 
it is good to be humbled with the information that I am a no- 
toriety seeker. I wonder who it can be, for he is so personal 



2 20 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

that it must be somebody who hates me right bitterly. Mr. 
Wood^s letters are more serious and I will answer both as care- 
fully and humbly as I can. I suppose Sarah sent you the ^' Inter- 
Mountain Catholic" with its attack on me. The address was 
at the Y. M. C. A. and the Roman Church dislikes that insti- 
tution so much that I guess they were looking for a chance. 

Clouds were gathering upon Bishop Spalding's horizon. 
The Pope, because of the attitude of Socialists toward the 
State Church in Europe, had fulminated against Socialism ; 
and therefore, forsooth, every Roman priest and paper in 
America must fight Socialism. There are always a few 
Protestants willing to do the bidding of the Roman Church 
by writing anonymous letters or doing other dishonorable 
things. But, what was far more serious, in his own com- 
munion were men who wanted him to stick to the simple 
Gospel; by which they meant a Gospel which in no way 
challenged their economic position. They were willing 
to support him so long as he organized Women's Guilds, 
Mission Study classes. Girls' Friendly Societies and held 
services attended by women and children. But when he, 
fisher of men that he had been commissioned by Christ 
to be, went for men, with the kind of bait men were hungry 
for, these supporters of churches and contributors to mis- 
sions made their voice heard in places of authority. When 
Bishop Spalding accepted the bishopric he thought that 
it would give him freedom to say things which he found 
difficult to say in a parish. He was to find that the same 
influences surround all ministers whether in one kind of 
work or another. For true it is, as Spalding himself said, 
"that the man who does the conventional work among the 
superintendents and their families does not touch the com- 
mon workmen, while the man who reaches the common 
workmen is looked at with suspicion by those in authority." 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 221 

To His Mother 

Eureka, April 2, 1911. 

Yesterday I had a fine experience. I went down in the 
Centennial Eureka mine — the deepest and most complete in the 
State. We walked in a tunnel seventeen hundred feet and then 
down a shaft in the cage seventeen hundred feet further, first 
going up to the top five hundred feet up the mountain above 
the level of the tunnel. Most of it was lighted with electricity. 
Down at the bottom they are driving a tunnel six hundred feet 
through useless rock in the hope that the ore body which they 
have above runs down that far. If it does they will have a 
great fortune for it is two hundred and fifty feet between this 
lower tunnel and the one they are now working and so there 
will be two hundred and fifty feet of ore which runs from thirty 
dollars a ton up to thousands silver, gold, copper, and some 
lead. The mine belongs to the U. S. Mining Co. and the Super- 
intendent is one of the trustees of the hospital and his daughter 
did my typewriting. That is an illustration of the way, under 
the present capitaHst system, the men who do the work with 
brains and hands, do not get the profits, for X's salary isn't 
large and the men get $2.25 to 3.50 a shift of eight hours. The 
miners in Eureka are a fine lot of men, many of them owning 
their own houses. The trouble is that they are mostly English, 
and there is no disputing the fact that the lower class English- 
man is so used to getting his Episcopal religion for nothing that 
he gives very Httle. I am to hold service every night this week. 
Mr. B. last night gave out this notice, "Bishop Spalding will 
continue to talk until next Sunday night." I do seem to keep 
pretty steadily at it. 

Eureka, Feb. 22, 1912. 

I hope I can say the right thing at the Miners' Union to-night 
for it is really a great chance to plead for real socialism as against 
a fake socialism which is nearly anarchy. 



222 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

To His Sister 

D. & R. G. R.R. on time 
March i8, 1911. 

I have read the very interesting article on scientific man- 
agement. Of course Mr. Taylor is very careful to insist that he 
is quite as much interested in discovering methods of increas- 
ing the efficiency of the human machine for the benefit of the 
laborer as for the increased profits of the employer. But what 
guarantee is there that the employer, the capitalist, shall not 
in time appropriate all the advantages? We speak of "labor 
saving machinery," but the fact is that labor saving machinery 
has done far more to increase the profits of capital than save the 
toil of laborers. It must not be forgotten that the United States 
is in theory a democracy, not a benevolent monarchy. I can- 
not see what guarantee labor has that it will continue to reap 
the benefit of its increased efficiency. The insincerity of piece 
work is clearly brought out in the article. In theory, piece 
work is a plan to enable the skiKul man to earn more money, 
but in practice it is a scheme to speed up the human machine 
and then lower the price per piece so that more product will be 
obtained by the employer for the same number of hours and the 
same wages. In just the same way the more efficient laborer 
will not get more wages for handling forty-seven tons of pig 
iron than for handling twelve tons unless a kind Mr. Taylor 
sees that he gets it ; so long as Mr. Taylor's men alone know and 
use the new secret, then he can afford to be just and generous. 
But just as soon as rival industries use the new methods the 
competition for profits will result in the same exploitation of 
labor as at present. I cannot therefore see how this weakens 
the Socialist demand — that the State, for the common good, 
own all the means of production — at all. Indeed the histori- 
cal fact that when the invention of steam gave promise of great 
improvement in the conditions of labor, the fact that present 
ownership of the factories, etc., resulted in capital getting all 
the benefits ought to warn us to-day that scientific management. 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 223 

unless public ownership comes first, will likewise result in con- 
tinued low wages and increased great fortunes. 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake, 

May 12, 191 1. 

Oh ! I don't know what my duty is. I haven't told anybody 
yet, but when I went to the Oregon Shortline office to see about 
my railroad pass, Mr. A. who has always attended to the matter 
referred me to Mr. B. up-stairs. Mr. B. said, "I will be per- 
fectly frank with you. You made a speech to our strikers in 
which you seemed to favor them rather than the company, 
and therefore we have decided that we will not give you a pass 
this year." I told him that of course he would understand that 
I could not surrender my right to free speech for a railroad pass, 
and that from now on I would pay full fare, not even using the 
half fare privilege which he said they had not withdrawn since 
it was a general commission which granted such privilege. 

So you see that I've another proof of our present competitive 
system. I wonder whether I'm all wrong and whether I ought 
to settle down and be an advocate of things just as they are. 
Of course you must say nothing about that because it would be 
small business to attack them on such a personal matter. They 
have a right to withdraw the courtesy if they please, though 
the fact that they have withdrawn it forces me to see that there 
was an object in giving it. 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake 
Oct. 14. 

I wonder why I can't be like Dr. A., the Methodist Super- 
intendent. He just does his work, looks after his ministers and 
feels no responsibiUty for changing anything. They send him 
the money and all he has to do is to spend it as wisely as possible. 
He didn't care whether there was a strike at Bingham or not ; 
all he wanted was a committee to see if Church property couldn't 



224 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

be exempted in Utah, because they were beginning to tax rec- 
tories. He has a lot easier time than I do, and I guess does 
more good. Still there were other Christians who were charged 
with wanting to turn the world upside down, weren't there? 

The storm which was rising because of his lectures on 
Socialism for the miners and trainmen broke when he at- 
tempted to work out his idea in a mining town. It was one 
thing for a peripatetic bishop to speak to working men 
three times a year at most, and quite another for him to 
organize his type of church in a town and supply it with 
his type of man. In April, 1908, he visited Garfield, 
twenty-eight miles from Salt Lake, where a property capi- 
talized at one hundred million, was being developed and 
where crowds were flocking in. It was not until two years 
later that he found it possible to start work there. 

To His Mother 

Salt Lake, Feb. 21, 1910. 

At 2.55 I went to Garfield. The Sunday School in East Gar- 
field is doing well and now Mr. Rice has been asked to take charge 
of a Sunday School in Middle Garfield and we are beginning 
in the town site proper. Ultimately I suppose houses will be 
built in Garfield proper for all the hundreds who work in the three 
great plants. The Utah Copper, the Boston Consolidated, and 
the American Smelter are strung along the lake shore for six 
miles, the town being in the middle. Now only about half live 
in the company houses in the town and the rest live in little 
temporary shacks they have built near their work. We have 
built a shack too at the Utah Copper and there are about fifty 
in the Sunday School. A man named Jackson, just a laboring 
man, started a Sunday School at the Boston Consolidated, but 
he has asked Mr. Rice to do that now and Rice has started even- 
ing meetings in the Odd Fellows Hall in Garfield, and it was to 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 225 

address this meeting I went out. It turned out a bad night 
but we had a pretty good crowd all the same. The Baptists 
began work in Garfield ahead of us and I don't want to seem to 
be competing with them and yet I do feel that sometime we must 
have a church there. 

Rev. Maxwell W. Rice, whom Spalding sent to Garfield, 
was from the East, where his father was a professor at Wil- 
liams College. A Williams College and Cambridge Sem- 
inary graduate he had offered himself to Bishop Spalding 
after two years work at St. George's, New York. Spald- 
ing, doubtless with Rice in mind, once told the writer that 
he preferred men who had served in such churches because 
they knew how to tackle problems and were not confused 
by new situations. Rice, brought up in comfort and refine- 
ment, went into Garfield and lived in the bunk house with 
the men. He and several of the men built the shack, 
to which the letter alludes, with their own hands, roofing 
it with corrugated iron under a sun which beat down upon 
the treeless plain until their hands were bUstered. But, 
though built by them with money which Rice got from 
Eastern friends, it stood upon property owned by the Utah 
Copper Company, as was every other shack in "rag town." 
There the work began, with kindergarten, Sunday School, 
Women's Guild, Men's Club, and reHgious services on Sun- 
days and Wednesdays. Rice identified himself with all 
the people of Garfield, playing tennis with the men in the 
company's office, hiking with the boys, eating with the 
laboring men. In every way he was superbly equipped 
to work out the plan Spalding had been dreaming of since 
he first visited the mining camp. 

One day a group of twelve young men, Scotch and Welsh 
miners, asked Rice if they could not meet after the evening 
service on Wednesday night in the mission shack and study 

Q 



226 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

sociology. Rice, with Spalding^s hearty approval gladly 
gave the permission, and the club met several times. Word 
was carried to the officials of the company that a group of 
Socialists were holding meetings on company property. 
The resident manager was immediately given orders to 
refuse to allow land of the company to be used by the church 
for any such purpose and to discharge any employees who 
attended the meetings. 

Bishop Spalding, as was his manly and frank way, went 
straight to the office of the General Manager. He had a 
fine sense of humor and it served him in this critical moment 
when all that he had stood for and been advocating for years 
hung in the balance. "May we speak with the man in 
charge of the rehgious department," he asked of that 
official. The manager appreciated the humor but he also 
was facing a crisis, for he was simply carrying out orders 
of a man higher up who lived at a distance. Spalding and 
Rice were told that hereafter the company would lease the 
ground upon which the mission shack stood but the terms 
of the lease were to state that the church should always 
stand on the side of the company, never on the side of the 
working man. The manager declared that the company 
had a hundred million dollars at stake and that labor condi- 
tions throughout the mining regions were critical. Then 
this conversation followed : 

Bishop. "Would you object to the church's opening a 
reading room?'* Gen. Mngr. "No, but we should insist 
that objectionable papers like the 'Appeal to Reason' 
and 'The Magazine of the Western Federation of Miners' 
should not be allowed." 

Bishop. "But if the 'Appeal to Reason' were given 
to the reading room by local Socialists and when they 
inquired why it was not placed on the tables, the missionary 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 227 

replied, ^Because the management or the company does 
not approve of it/ wonldn^t that create rather than allay 
discontent ? *' Gen. Mngr. " That would be a very tactless 
method of replying. It would be the missionary's duty so to 
reply that the company would be saved from criticism." 

Bishop. "Would you object to a debating club?" 

Gen. Mngr. "No, provided no debate on socialism or 
labor questions would be allowed, and here again tact should 
be used to side track such questions if they were proposed." 

"How," wrote Spalding, to the Secretaries of the Joint 
Commission on Social Service, "can the Church imdertake 
work in a town under such limitations as to her freedom of 
speech? If you say it cannot, then I ask, is nothing to be 
done for the moral and spiritual welfare of the human 
beings who Hve there ? " 

The Y. M. C. A. has faced a similar problem in the rail- 
road work where the land on which its building stands is 
owned by the company and where the company pays the 
salary of the secretary. The secretary is instructed to be 
neutral in every dispute between the men and the company ; 
under no circiunstances is he to express any sympathy 
with the men or allow the building to be used to discuss 
economic or social problems; its service must be limited 
to "welfare" work. The acceptance of a subsidy closes 
the mouth of the recipient. Welfare work may be the task 
of the Y. M. C. A. but the Church of Christ must be God's 
prophet. 

To a Socialist who was critical of what he did in Garfield 
and sent him "The Inside of the Cup," Spalding wrote: 

July, 1913. 

I am afraid this wiU have to be a long letter and first about 
the Garfield matter. There is nothing about Garfield in "The 



228 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Inside of the Cup.'' In the first place the men with whom I 
had to deal in Utah were only representatives. They can't 
help themselves. They are not Mr. Parr. They work for 
salaries — big ones I'll admit, and salaries they earn because 
they are supposed to be as clever as Lawyer Langmaid in keep- 
ing obstreperous labor leaders and meddling parsons in their 
place. But if John Hodder had blamed it all on Mr. Langmaid 
he wouldn't have played fair, would he? Garfield's Eldon Parr 
is I suppose Simon Guggenheim. It helped Mr. Churchill a 
lot to have his real villain where he could lay hands on him. 
Then in the second place the Bishop of Utah hasn't a job like 
John Hodder. I don't mean that he must behave circumspectly 
because others depend on him. The McCrea incident covers 
that, but I mean that a bishop's job prevents specialization. 
It is simply absurd what we have to try to do. While this 
Garfield matter was on I had the following duties to attend to 
(a) I was trying to keep a girls' school going ; (b) I was trying 
to keep a hospital in peace. The cleverest surgeon on the staff 
didn't like the head nurse. The business manager would spend 
more money than we could afford, &c, &c. (c) We were plan- 
ning the Men's House at the State University. It involved an 
expenditure of $25,000 given me to use. I had to be sure the 
plans were O. K., that the estimates were safe, and I had to 
persuade men to be on the building committee and women on 
a furnishing committee. 

(d) I was bringing out a Pamphlet to try to make the Mor- 
mons (after all they are the main job) think. It took four years 
to get it up. The idea was to show by the only original texts 
that can be tested that Joseph Smith wasn't a reliable trans- 
lator of ancient language. 

(e) The Indian work had to be looked after. The Agency 
was moved — a new mission house had to be arranged for 
through the authorities at Washington. 

(/) Because there are so few missionaries in Utah I had to 
try to be general missionary, going to preach where I could get 
the chance, sometimes away from home three weeks at a time. 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 229 

Well, what is the use of giving in. The Bishop of Utah has 
nothing to do compared with the Bishop of New York or Massa- 
chusetts. This is an age of speciaUsts. John Hodder was 
able to specialize in Dalton, Ct. I wasn't able to specialize in 
Garfield. The man, who was there who might have done so 
and whom I could have backed up, had to resign and go to Europe 
with his aged parents. The only man I could find to take his 
place was a good old ' Dr. Oilman.' What else was there for me 
to do but let this elderly clergyman do the only kind of work he 
could do and not undervalue it, but try to make it, by encourag- 
ing him, as useful as it could be made to the people in Garfield 
who would probably be helped by it, some of them possibly; 
although Garfield is not quite Uke the city Mr. Churchill writes 
about. In Garfield practically nobody cares whether there is 
church or not. The Mormons have their meeting house, very 
likely their church owns stock in the company. The Non- 
Mormons or some of them want a Sunday School for the children 
and they organized that themselves, the superintendent being 
the manager of the company store. He used to be a Camp- 
beUite preacher. When it was proposed to locate ' Dr. Gilman ' 
in Garfield I saw this Sunday School superintendent and asked 
if he would contribute to his salary and ask some of the other 
people to do the same — making the local contribution at least 
$25.00 per month. He agreed and then went to the superin- 
tendent of the mine and together they arranged to make the 
company pay it. That would put the ' Rev. Dr. Gilman * under 
obHgations to the company and at the same time enable them 
to get their reHgion free. You will ask : " How about the workers 
themselves — don't they want free reHgion?" No, they don't 
care for any kind of religion. We couldn't hold out-door meet- 
ings because the company owned streets, vacant lots and every- 
thing and I almost doubt whether any of the workers would 
listen to the man who made a try. We thought of building a 
church in Pleasant Green, a town two miles outside the com- 
pany's land, but we found that nobody in the town would dream 
of going so far to church. ' Dr. Gilman ' has had the effect of 



230 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

interesting the company in those men in certain ways, no doubt 
insincere ways, but ways. They have opened a club and bath 
house and pay a man, picked out by ' Dr. Gihnan,' $75. a month 
to care for it. They have laid out a baseball park and paid 
for the uniforms for the Garfield team. The men are quite 
willing to take their recreation from the company and most of 
them would be quite willing to take their religion, if they wanted 
any religion. I guess that is degrading the word "religion" 
and I will withdraw it and put *' church" in its place. We 
simply must beheve that even the people in Garfield are reli- 
gious animals like the rest of humanity, but just how it expresses 
itself I don't know. You ask what is the reaction of this sort 
of church on the wage earning class-conscious workers. The 
only hope is that those who think understand. "War, too, is 
hell" and we want it abolished, but while it lasts there must be 
chaplains and red cross nurses, and so long as they comfort the 
dying and nurse the injured it matters very Httle which side 
pays their wages. I've sometimes wondered whether there is 
in a company town like Garfield any self respect. When the 
wage system has done its work on an individual or group of 
individuals is there any self left to respect? 

No, I can't see that I had any other course. You and I know 
that "the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint ; from the 
sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it." 
I could have pubhshed the whole story. It might have been a 
ten days wonder. The men now in charge might have lost their 
jobs and smoother, more oily Langmaids been put in their 
places, but would it really have helped toward the destruction 
of the present system or rather would it really have hastened 
the evolution out of the present system? I've been trying to 
think out a sermon. It might be, "Verily I say unto you they 
have received their reward." It is repeated three times. About 
alms givers who are doing their duty to their fellow men, about 
prayers who are doing their duty to God, about pastors who are 
trying to do their duty to themselves, to their true selves, by 
subduing the flesh. To act openly, to make a fuss about it. 



THE CErtTRCH IN THE MINING CAMP 23 1 

to attract the attention of the world means nothing permanent. 
It brings a present satisfaction. It enables them to think they 
have done a big thing and to have a smug content. But the man 
who counts is the man who grows strong at the heart, who has 
personaUty which is always weakened by the grand stand play. 
That is surely the big thing in ''The Inside of the Cup." If 
God gives me strength quietly to live and work and teach the 
absolute need of Social Revolution, nothing less, ten years 
from to-day I'll have done more good in Utah than if I could 
stir up a strike at Garfield or bankrupt the Utah Copper Co. 

I am very grateful to you for the book. I'm going to try 
to get people to read it. Even more wonderful than the story 
itself is the fact that he should have written it. I don't mean 
to suggest that Churchill isn't a sincere man and yet I think 
probably he chose the subject in part at least, because he thought 
it was interesting and people would buy the book. Surely that's 
wonderfully encouraging. When Bernard Shaw wrote ''Wid- 
ows' Houses," he had to put it among the "Unpleasant Plays," 
and it doesn't put the case as strongly as this best selling novel. 
That's a lot of progress in twenty years. 

The subject they have given me at the General Convention 
is "The Church and Democracy." Of course I must think of 
democracy industrially. To think of it politically would only 
be ' flop doodle.' I'm tr3dng to find out what proportion of our 
95,000,000 constitute the democracy, the real demos. If all 
exploited workers were class conscious how many would there 
be? How many by I. W. W. reckoning constitute the prole- 
tariat? Do you know, I think I'll write to Victor Berger though 
I don't know him. Please forgive this long letter in my blind 
hand writing. 

The general manager said to the writer in Salt Lake City 
in 1916, "I wouldn't tell Rice this, but perhaps we had, in 
our effort to pay dividends, overlooked the men. All that 
we have done since for them is really due to Rice. And 



232 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

we have many more things in mind to do. Bishop Spalding 
was a great man and always did what he thought was 
right/' 

Bishop Spalding went to the General Convention of 19 13 
fresh from this experience of failure in the work in the min- 
ing camp. In the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, before 
the most representative assembly of the Episcopal Church, 
he spoke on the Church and Democracy. He had pre- 
pared the speech with great care during his vacation, and 
on the evening of its delivery, he prayed earnestly for cour- 
age to deUver it, knowing full well what it might mean to 
his work. Before him, filling every seat in crossing and 
choir, sat bishops, deputies and prominent members of the 
Woman's Auxiliary. In the great city at his feet stood the 
mighty buildings in which resides the power that dictates 
policies for mines and railroads throughout the West. In 
that place Spalding, like the prophet Amos at Bethel or 
Savonarola in the Duomo of Florence, told of what God 
had led him to see ; he quoted the man who said to him that 
he proposed to control the preaching that went on in his 
town, and told of the railroad official who refused the pass 
because he did not approve of the speech Spalding had made 
to his striking workmen. He admired such men, he said, 
for their frankness ; business is business. But let them not 
forget that the class-conscious working-man is equally logi- 
cal in not wanting the religion which is given by those who 
consider rehgion a useful soporific calculated to make men 
content. "Surely," he cried, "there can be no doubt on 
which side the Church of Jesus Christ ought to stand, 
where the issue is between dollars and men. She must 
stand on the solid ground of economic truth. She must 
learn that labor, not capital, is the basis of all value, that 
men at their worst are worth more than dollars at their 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 233 

best. . . . She must take her place on the side of the worker, 
giving him, from her Master, self-control and courage and 
hope and faith, so that he may fight his battle and win his 
victory, which is not his victory alone, but the victory of 
society; the victory of cooperation, of love over selfish- 
ness. . . . The Church, if she is to be a real power in the 
Twentieth Century, must cease to be merely the almond 
of the rich and become the champion of the poor.'* 

The congregation of Churchmen, bankers, lawyers, 
women, hstened spellbound, caught in the torrent of his 
speech, the terrible earnestness of his manner, the deep 
religious emotion of his closing appeal. Then the congre- 
gation left the cathedral and the storm of criticism broke. 
"I want this talk about the Church being on the side of the 
rich stopped," exclaimed one of the most distinguished 
bishops. "It is not true. Look what the Church is doing 
for the poor." "Why shouldn't I accept money from the 
mill owners," said a prominent bishop of a Southern dio- 
cese, " for use in the mill town ? " " Never have that man in 
our parish again," exclaimed a sister of a certain rich bishop 
to her rector. And the rector recalled that a few weeks 
before the same lady had called Spalding "lovely," and had 
expressed her desire to have the missionary offering sent to 
"our own people in the West" rather than to "foreign 
missions." The wife of one of the prominent lay deputies, 
a great corporation lawyer, pleaded with Spalding to keep 
quiet and told him of a rich man who had intended to make 
a large contribution to a Church hospital in Japan but 
now refused to give a cent to a church that tolerated such 
a bishop. A woman who was a leader in the Woman's 
Auxiliary and gave away thousands of dollars to missions 
told him that he would never know how much harm he had 
done to the missionary work of the Church. The secretary 



234 FRANKLIN SPENGER SPALDING 

of a certain layman's organization told Spalding that he 
must stop his socialism, that he was breaking the hearts 
of his friends, and ruining not only his own reputation but 
the very Church itself. 

To A, R, T, 

Sept. 21, 1914. 

I sometimes wonder whether the Protestant Episcopal Church 
and Social Service can live together. I did get jimiped on so 
hard for the speech I made at the General Convention from the 
great lights of the Church, both male and female, that I can't 
help wondering whether the social and the historical program 
of the Church doesn't make interest in Social Service along 
radical Hues an absolutely illogical development. Mr. CUnton 
Rogers Woodruff and myself, for example, have been having a 
little correspondence. He admits that the class struggle may 
be an economic fact but insists that it is the duty of the Church 
to keep quiet about it. Isn't the mission of the Church to appeal 
to the respectable, well-to-do people to Kve passably decent 
lives, be honest neighbors, to share their wealth with the poor 
and to worship God in the dignified manner set forth by the Book 
of Common Prayer ? Now mind you all the protests have been 
made as the result of one short address by an insignificant mis- 
sionary bishop. 

To his mother who shared his inmost soul he wrote, "I 
wonder whether the time will ever come when it will be my 
duty to resign from the Church for the sake of the Church, 
for I cannot quite see how I can stop speaking out what I 
think God's spirit shows me as the truth." He thought of 
himseK as an insignificant bishop, but he had in and through 
his work, in Erie and in Utah, experienced a new thing. 
By contact with the miners in Utah, as by contact with the 
dock- workers in Erie, he had awakened to the fact that three- 
fourths of the men, women and children in America are 



THE CHURCH IN THE MINING CAMP 235 

wage earners and nothing else, and are as dependent as 
were Southern slaves upon the bounty of the few who own 
the tools and reap the profits of the competitive economic 
system. The existing economic system gives to a few the 
power to give or withhold from the many everything that 
makes life agreeable, both the means of earning a living of 
any kind and the kind of religion they are to believe. Spald- 
ing saw the fundamental injustice in such a system which 
no philanthropic work can make right. If the Church would 
help those impoverished by the privileges that enrich her 
she must help destroy those privileges. Until she is ready 
to do what she can in restoring to men their equal rights to 
the use of God-s gifts, she will look in vain for the interest 
and service of laboring men. To this stern and tragic 
fact the Church was blind, as was the Jewish Church in the 
time of Amos. This bishop, like him of Tekoa, was told 
by the Church in General Convention assembled, to go back 
to his sheep. But there were those who heard and under- 
stood. "We can think of few men," declared the Bishop 
of Michigan in November, 1914, "whose influence is so 
likely to live, and few whom the coming years are so likely 
to justify " 



XV 

The Church and Socialism 

Undoubtedly the most conspicuous fact in Bishop Spald- 
ing's hfe was his championship of the cause of the working- 
man. It was the passion of his hfe. He was an enthusiastic 
convert to the economic theories of Karl Marx and he saw 
in Socialism the instrument by which, under God, the terrible 
wrongs and inequahties which mark the civihzation of to- 
day were to be righted. He belonged to those religious 
pioneers of our day who see the larger interpretation of which 
Christianity is capable and which it must receive if it is to 
become again the dominant factor in civihzation. 

Frank Spalding wrote for * The Christian Socialist ' the 
story of his conversion to SociaUsm. It was a recollection, 
written shortly before his death, and very briefly told. It 
gives but a faint idea of the process by which he reached 
Marxian socialism. The biographer has attempted to 
show, in previous chapters the steps toward sociaUsm which 
Spalding took. The reader will recall that while rector of 
St. Paul's, Erie, he came to see in the case of his own parish- 
ioners, the effect of the introduction of new mechanical 
devices upon the wage earners ; that while the few are helped, 
many willing and able workers are cast out of the active 
industrial life and are driven into shiftlessness, vice and 
crime, and that the increased wealth which the rich received 
did not make them better men and women but, on the 
contrary, worse. "I was forced to reahze," he said in his 

236 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 237 

story of his conversion, ''that thousands who had as good a 
right to the fullness of hfe as I had, did not have a ghost of 
a chance. ... I was forced to reahze that the power to make 
and save money carries with it the destruction of the impulse 
to give it away." The capitaHstic system, though it pro- 
posed to substitute charity for justice, was, he beheved, 
diabolically contrived to take the heart out of charity, and 
in spite of noble exceptions, usually succeeded. 

If social salvation is not to come through persuading, 
on the part of the churches, the rich and mighty to be kind 
and generous and public spirited, how can it come? 
The Christian Church exists for the sole purpose of sav- 
ing the human race. Is it a hopeless failure? SociaHsm 
told him that though social salvation could never come 
through the classes, it might come through the masses. 
Competition wiU not be stopped by making the victors so 
pitiful that they wiU share the spoils — but by making the 
vanquished so strong that they can no longer be robbed. 
That brought to Spalding truth and hope. Toward the 
close of his ministry in Erie he annoimced himself a SociaHst. 

To the ''Worker'' 

Sept. 22, 1 901. 

I am a Socialist, and I hope I appreciate every wise and honest 
effort which is being made to do away with the present com- 
petitive system. I am a clergjrman of the Christian Church, 
but I have never been ignorant enough to apply to myself the 
term ''Christian Socialist," believing that that name is a mis- 
nomer. At the same time I feel that in the Christian teaching 
of the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man, the 
infinite value of every hmnan life and the right of every human 
life to an environment on the earth capable of developing to 
the full its God-given possibilities, there will be found the emo- 
tion needed to bring in the socialistic theory which must, like 



238 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

every other theory, be touched with emotion before it can be 
reaHzed, and therefore I am opposed to any attempt to arouse 
emotion by appeals to selfish, narrow prejudice as your editorial 
in my judgment most certainly does. 

Speaking to the graduating class of the University of 
Utah, in the first year of his episcopate, Frank Spalding 
said, "I used to call myself a Socialist, but as I considered 

the matter more carefully I found I could no longer do so 

I confess that the motives the Socialist appeals to, the 
rewards which he considers represent man^s highest good 
seem to me ignoble and inadequate. Carlyle was right 
when in his blunt way he called SociaUsm ^Pig Philosophy. ' " 
Spalding was talking to yoimg men and women, Mormons 
for the most part, who were strongly tempted to stay in the 
Mormon Church for the loaves and fishes, and he was seek- 
ing to inspire them with the highest motives and ideals 
which he found, not in Socialism but in the religion of Christ. 
"The Crisis" at once denounced him as a fat, well-fed pul- 
piteer, and the Socialists of Salt Lake immediately invited 
him to address them in the Federation of Labor Hall. He ac- 
cepted, and told them that when a man offered him a panacea 
for every ill and asked fifty cents a bottle for it — he saved his 
fifty cents. So when the Socialist advanced him one little 
bit of philosophy as a cure for all the ills the suffering world 
was enduring he refused to be a materialist. He asked his 
hearers if the legislation in favor of rest for workers made 
by Moses, the teachings of Jesus and the work for the 
country by George Washington were to be explained by the 
shortage of food supply and the question of land ownership, 
as the materialistic conception of history would indicate. 
Socialism, he argued, appealed to the selfish instincts of the 
most unselfish class of people — the poor. The cry to them 
to be class-conscious was a way to arouse their self-interests. 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 239 

Where the SociaUst failed, he contended, was in not recog- 
nizing the power of the spirit. 

What surprised the audience on that occasion, however, 
was his declaration that he was in favor of the most radical 
demands of the Socialist. And, to make certain where he 
stood, he was asked from the floor whether as a bishop in 
the Episcopal Church he was not bound to help in upholding 
the plutocracy. He repHed that he was not, that all he had 
to do was to preach Christianity, help to build churches, 
and that he was not bereft of his right to any opinion or its- 
expression. He said that when the social revolution came, 
the rich men in the church would try to swing the church 
against the proletariat and might come within measurable 
degree of succeeding, but that the working-man had the 
opportimity to join the church and swing it the other way. 
When the authenticity of his quotation of Carlyle was chal- 
lenged he frankly admitted that he had it second-hand. 

Spalding invariably tried to understand the point of view 
of men with whom he clashed. After his heckling in the 
Labor Hall he weighed the arguments of those men and his' 
own replies, and was driven to revise his own judgment on 
the question of the part environment plays in life. If by 
environment we mean not merely physical things but social 
and intellectual forces, does not environment control the 
lives of all men at most points? Popular opinion controls 
us in the clothes we wear, the food we use, the books we read ; 
in short, in all that goes to make up our daily Hves. Men 
could not be the clean, neat persons they generally are but 
for the power of popular opinion. Environment determines 
character very largely. Clergymen are kept good through 
force of public opinion. Men have set a standard for them, 
and they know they must walk up to it. Jacob Riis had 
once told Spalding that, in his opinion, environment counts 



24© FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

99 per cent and, as he thought about it, he began to see that 
what Riis said was true. 

It was Spalding's contact with the rich no less than with 
the poor that brought him to this conclusion, which in the 
formulation of socialist philosophy is the doctrine of Eco- 
nomic Determinism. 

To His Mother 

New York, Oct. 13. 

The luxury of the rich and the way their luxury makes them 
indifferent to aU the old conventions, even at a church gathering, 
is saddening. Yesterday after the service we got into the 

Bishop's auto and went to , 17 miles, to a luncheon given 

by in honor of her brother, the Bishop of . A great 

crowd of swells were there and a most elegant luncheon with 
champagne to drink, etc. No one would have dreamed it was 
Sunday. It makes me more of a sociaUst than ever. 

That particular woman was a good Churchwoman ; she 
was interested in missions and gave, so she thought, gener- 
ously. But her annual gifts to the church did not equal 
the cost of her private establishment for a single week. She 
was the creature of her environment and no amount of 
persuasion from the pulpit touched her; when it became 
"socialistic" she transferred her membership to another 
parish. This Churchwoman was but t3^ical of her class 
and could be made genuinely Christian, Bishop Spalding 
thought, only by a change in her environment. By such 
cases, he says, "I was forced to realize that the power to 
make and save money carries with it the destruction of the 
impulse to give it away. It only takes a minute for luxuries 
to become necessities, and one millionaire makes all the 
$100,000 men and women feel poor." 

In his Thanksgiving Day sermon that year, 1905, Spalding 
showed that his mind had gone stiU further toward Socialism. 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 24 1 

"The older thinkers insisted that ideas were fundamental. 
But in the last fifty years a new philosophy has been winning 
its way. In 1857, Buckle published his ^ History of CiviHza- 
tion/ an attempt to prove that cHmate and physical char- 
acteristics of the soil determined intellectual and moral 
character. In 1861, Karl Marx pubhshed * Capital/ an 
elaborate effort to show that the foundations of the state 
rested not on moral and spiritual ideas, but on food supply. 

This reading of history is indeed revolutionary And so, 

Thanksgiving Day bids us to be glad that we have enough 
to eat and when we say that, we do not dismiss God from 
the world, but we realize His presence more than ever, be- 
cause every one must feel that our material blessings we owe 
to Him. . . . The old notion that hunger and misery drove 
men to God is not true. It makes them angry and sullen 
and skeptical. Material prosperity is a foundation for 
religion and we must be thankful to God that we are Hving 
in a time of wonderful awakening. The day is coming 
when the over abundance which is cursing the rich will be 
taken away and the poverty of the poor relieved, and the 
higher, nobler side of human hfe will have a chance." 

As Spalding came into intimate relations with the work- 
ing-men in his District he took one more step forward. 
At Eureka, Nevada, for illustration, he saw over one hundred 
million doUars taken out of the mines; at Pioche, fifteen 
miUions ; at Virginia City, surpassing sums. What did the 
wealth produced do for the locahties that produced it? 
he asked. And he found that it produced absolutely noth- 
ing. Tonopah, Goldfield, Manhattan, Ely and RhyoHte 
might have built better school houses, churches, town halls, 
reading rooms, pubHc baths, sewage systems and well-paved 
streets with a portion of Nevada's wealth. Whether by 
high taxation, or by a spirit which wiU inspire private gen- 



242 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

erosity, they must see to it, he declared, that those who 
are making fortunes here divide with the State which is 
enriching them. But he saw those immense profits, after 
paying large wages of superintendence and bare Hving 
wages to the workers, go east and west, leaving the working 
people exploited of the product of their labor and robbed 
of their self-respect. 

The first lecture on Socialism which Spalding deUvered 
in his District was given at Rhyohte, Nevada, in April, 
1907, at the solicitation of friends. "He is in no way 
radical," declared the Rhyolite Herald the next day, "and 
the brand of sociahsm championed by him is the safe and 
sane kind, that would work injustice to no one and be the 
means of uplifting the whole human race.'^ In that lecture 
Spalding said that a man's environment is responsible in a 
great measure for what he is ; that the competitive system 
of the present day cannot be satisfactory to American citi- 
zens ; that true sociahsm aims to secure for every one the 
complete development of his powers. He condemned the 
class-conscious workman for forsaking his fellows as soon as 
he makes money, and declared that the really great leaders 
in Sociahsm have not come from the laboring classes. We 
can make things better, he held, by natural evolution, 
through thrift, progress, growth, brains, not by ignorant 
radicahsm and violence. 

A year later, in January, 1908, at the consecration of 
his friend and classmate, Edward J. Knight, as Bishop of 
Western Colorado, Spalding preached the sermon and came 
out clearly and emphatically for the teaching of Marx. 
"Behind all the movement for social uphft outside the 
religious organizations to-day, is a philosophy which is as 
yet imappropriated by the Church, and yet which is, I be- 
lieve, true. It is based upon the fact that environment 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 243 

has most to do with the making of the product, and that 
therefore the chief work of any organization desiring success 
must be to create right conditions. Karl Marx called it 
^ MateriaHstic Conception of History,' an expression which 
his followers soften into the ^economic interpretation of 
history' and to the hundreds of thousands of socialists who 
follow him, it means that a new form of society must be 
worked for, if need be, fought for, in which the fundamental 
business of the State shall be, to give to each human being 
a supply for its physical needs. Man may not be able to 
live by bread alone, but first of all he must have bread, and 
to-day there are milUons even in this land who are hungry, 
and who have inadequate shelter and clothing. . . . The 
Church has not believed his teaching. Nine-tenths of the 
preachers are still proclaiming Samuel Smiles' ^ Self Help ' and 
Thomas Carlyle's^ Hero Worship,' and that any boy can be 
President of the United States if he has it in him, and the 
result is that we are the Church of the well-fed and well- 
clothed, and that we spend most of our time fattening the 
sheep in the fold. Surely we forget that the Master said in 
one of His greatest parables, that it matters not how good 
the seed is, it will not grow imless it fall into the right soil. 
Yes, we forget the meaning of the prayer He taught us to 
say — Lead us not into temptation. ... Go forth as the 
Bishop of SociaHsm and Trade-Unionism, of Communism 
and Prohibition, of Ethical Culture, New Thought, of truth 
held by all men, at all times and in all places, and truth 
which was only discovered yesterday. ... We are Apostles 
of Christ, not private chaplains to rich parishioners, not 
earnest men hampered with small and confining surround- 
ings, not privates required to obey the orders of others 
whom we are not sure of, but leaders, with no superior 
save Christ, the King." 



244 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

In Lent 1908, Bishop Spalding gave a series of lectures 
in St. Paul's Church, Salt Lake, on " Christianity and Social 
Reform " three of which were entitled *^ The History of Social- 
ism," ^^Karl Marx and Scientific SociaHsm" and "The 
Great Cooperative Commonwealth.'' In these lectures, 
before a congregation that filled every seat and crowded 
the aisles, he avowed his behef in straight Marxian Socialism. 
The reception of those lectures on Socialism was a mighty 
encouragement to Spalding. "Bishop Spalding," said the 
'Inter Mountain Repubhcan' editorial, "has done more 
than give good advice to SociaHsts. He has told the rest 
of us some things about Socialism that we didn't know. 
By the fact of this telling — he being a much respected 
man — the community has a better opinion of it. It hasn't 
won the pubhc, but people are not so hostile as they were, 
for they have been told the truth about it in temperate 
language, by a temperate man." Until this time he had 
been a student seeking information, at times an implacably 
hostile critic, now he became a champion of a cause. The 
cause was The Church and Socialism. 

For the new stand which Spalding had been brought by 
experience to take, his mind had been clarified by his 
visit to the Pan- Anglican Congress and the Lambeth 
Conference in the summer of 1908. Although urged by 
his mother to accompany her and his sister to Europe, 
Spalding put the matter out of his mind until the invitation 
arrived to give one of the addresses before the Congress. 
Bishop Lawrence was invited to speak on the Pilgrim 
Fathers and Bishop Spalding on the Mormons. He was 
also asked if he would speak in England on the subject of 
Missions, if invited after the Congress. He replied that 
he would — "for I'd like some money to reconvert EngHsh 
Mormons." 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 245 

An American clergyman was sitting with two alert Eng- 
lishmen in Albert Hall during one of the sessions of the 
Pan-Anghcan Congress. The Englishman discussed, be- 
tween speeches from the platform, problems in the United 
States. Bishop Spalding was announced by the Chairman. 
As he stepped across the platform the Enghshmen eyed 
him curiously and turned to the American with the question, 
"Who's he, bishop, did he say? What is he bishop of? '' 
This bishop had not made himself and his country ridiculous 
by aping English episcopal ways, and the Englishmen 
thought there was some mistake in that word bishop until 
the American assured them he was an American bishop. 
He recalled to them that American bishops do not have 
palaces and regal incomes, and the best of them wear 
neither gaiters nor aprons. To them the man as he stood 
there was a sermon on reality. They fixed their eyes 
on Spalding and listened with strained attention to 
every word he said. Another American clergyman who had 
felt somewhat humiliated by the contrast between his own 
story-telling bishops and the more scholarly Englishmen, 
lifted up his head with national pride when Spalding had 
finished speaking. In Spalding, America had a man capable 
of ranking high among the best speakers of the Congress. 

The ' Church Times ' declared that, "the Bishop of Utah 
brought a whiff of the Salt Lake breezes into the conference. 
There was not much glory in being a bishop in Utah, because 
there were seven hundred others (loud laughter). The 
most unconventional bishop that ever Hved, with a rich 
American accent and the clothes of a country curate, he 
said 'it would be far better for the Church in the old country 
to have done something on behalf of those who had left 
its shores than for others to reconvert them after they had 
become Mormons. Last year, 1,285,771 white settlers 



246 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

went to that country from the old world, of whom 337,573 
could neither read nor write, and the Churchmen there 
would feel more confident of the future if they felt that 
the people here were thinking more about what the country 
was to become, instead of thinking merely of their own 
over-crowded condition' (applause)." 

At a great meeting in Albert Hall where he was a volunteer 
speaker, Spalding advocated Prohibition. He told the 
Enghshmen that there were no respectable saloons in the 
United States, and "from what I have heard you don't 
seem to have made yours respectable by putting women in 
them. Why don't you want prohibition? Because of 
your moderate drinkers. What is a moderate drinker? 
He is supposed to be the man who can stop drinking when 
he wants to — but here in England you have so many who 
have no possible idea of wanting to that you cannot even 
think of Prohibition (laughter)." 

He was invited to preach in Westminster Abbey. On 
Sunday morning, Aug. 2, he preached his sermon on the 
Transfiguration. In the congregation which filled the Abbey 
was Mr. H. H. Asquith who at the close of the sermon pro- 
nounced it one of the most inspiring sermons he had ever 
listened to. He also preached at All Saints' , Margaret Street, 
a favorite sermon of his on "The Lost Sheep," which 
the * Church Times ' printed in full in its Anglo-Catholic 
Pulpit. The rector belonged to the Catholic Party with 
which Spalding had little sympathy. But, having been asked, 
he did not wish to seem bigoted and so consented. On 
arriving at the church he was ushered by a red-slippered 
acolyte into an antechamber in the center of which was 
something that looked to him like a bier with heavy em- 
broidered coverlets spread over it. The acolyte informed 
him that these were the vestments in which he was ex- 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 247 

pected to "pontificate.'' "I looked at them aghast," said 
Spalding. "All my Puritan blood rose up in me. Though 
the service was about to begin, I said, ^I can't wear those 
things.' The acolyte was embarrassed, what was to be 
done ? " Spalding found a characteristic way out. He pro- 
posed that he should remain outside the chancel till time for 
the sermon and then he would preach. The compromise was 
agreed to. " It always seemed to me," he wrote, " a strange 
instance of the illogical character of the thinking of this 
party in the Church. I was the Bishop and in the theory 
of the Church to which this rector adhered legally his su- 
perior in authority. But nevertheless, he was willing to 
exclude me from his chancel unless I observed the forms 
that he thought necessary." 

In the section of the Pan-Anglican on the Church and 
Himaan Society, Bishop Spalding again was a volunteer 
speaker on the Church and Socialism. He spoke as a 
Marxian rather than as a Fabian Socialist. The Church 
must get the environment right if it expects the man to be 
right. It was a question of slave emancipation and it was 
to the interest of the workingman to see that that selfish 
individualism was done away with. It was for the Church 
to help the movement. It exists for the sole purpose of 
saving the human race; so far she has failed, but Social- 
ism shows her how she may succeed. 

To a Friend 

Aug. 5. 
If you had been with rae when that Lambeth report was writ- 
ten you would never quote it. The Bishop of O. wrote it and he 
is the most cowardly trimmer I ever expect to see. Unfortunately 
the Bishop of Hereford, a really brave man, was called away by 
death of his son, and G. fixed things up to suit himself. If G. 



248 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

has an atom of sand in his make up I failed to discover it. Ex- 
pediency was his entire philosophy. It takes all kinds of men 
to make the world and a few more to make a conference of 
bishops. 

After a delightful trip through France and Italy with 
Bishop Rowe of Alaska, Spalding arrived in Rome. "It 
has been wonderful seeing it all," he said. "If the wealth 
of a nation is to be in the hands of the few can there be any 
possible development other than Rome had? Mr. Carnegie 
builds libraries and sooner or later Mr. Caracalla will make 
baths, etc. Isn't it safer to let the State own the wealth 
for all? So you see Rome preaches Socialism too." By 
the middle of September he was back again in Salt Lake. 
The Pan- Anglican Congress and the Lambeth Conference 
had shown him that Socialism was recognized in England 
as a force to be reckoned with, and that no Church Congress 
was thought complete without a consideration of it. From 
then on he never declined an invitation to address a Church 
convention on the subject. When his mother gently 
warned him of the dangers he would reply, "You remember 
what we found in England." That fall he cast his first 
ballot for the Socialist ticket. 

To an Honored Teacher 

Nov. 4. 

There is only one satisfaction in having a good man disagree 
with you and that is you may be able to convert him and then 
you've put a good man — who was wrong — right. I did vote 
for Debs, and I cannot understand how a man as wise and good 
as yourself could vote for Taft whose only argument was that 
utterly unchristian sentiment "Let well enough alone." 

As to the Chicago riots, of course lawlessness is bad. That is 
why I am a socialist for socialism is an effort to reduce the chaos 
and anarchy of this "every man for himself" competitive sys- 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 249 

tern to law, and yet when it comes to a judgment based on the 
rights of man and the real justice of the case, I'd rather be with 
Debs and Altgeld than Grover Cleveland. 

You must know, as a man of science, how Uttle personality 
counts for in the great social movement. The Thomas Carlyle 
theory of history that big heroes in spite of their surroundings 
rise to a higher level and then pull the rest of humanity up is 
so little true that it is practically false. Material causes, ques- 
tions of bread and butter, fresh air, time and place for play so 
that the pressure for stimulation by artificial means is lessened, 
work of the kind God gave the gifts to do, these are the things 
that really count. And socialism is the only thought which 
knows it. 

If my vote can swell the Debs vote so that it will be big enough 
to make men like yourself sit up and take notice and discover 
what sociaHsm really is, I shall have cast that vote more wisely 
than if it went for "Let well enough alone Taft," or "Every man 
for himself Bryan." 

In the great co-operative commonwealth it will be possible 
to make and enforce law for the public good. 

Wherever he went he was invited to speak on the Church 
and Socialism, to the great surprise of the press of the 
country, which featured him as a " Socialist Bishop " on 
the front pages. " Indeed, I am a Socialist," stated Spald- 
ing to the reporter. ** Why not, aren't you ? I am a 
Marxian Socialist, and I'm a Socialist in every sense of the 
word. Just why and to what extent, I will tell you in my 
lecture. Under the present individualistic system of gov- 
ernment we reach the wealthy and refined and take care 
of them but Socialism reaches the masses. I think it has 
a great message eventually to give to the world. Chris- 
tianity would get along better under Socialism than under 
the individualistic form of government. Now by this I do 
not mean to infer that the Episcopal Church is preaching 



250 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Socialism, as we do not mix politics with religion. I am a 
Socialist as a man, just as you may be a Republican or a 
Democrat, and it is as such that I endeavor to help the 
cause of Socialism. I did not come here primarily to give 
a talk on Socialism, but Portland Socialists, learning of 
my presence, and knowing that I was a Socialist, invited 
me to speak and I accepted. I really came to talk and 
work in the interests of the missionary work being done in 
the interior." 

In advocating Socialism Bishop Spalding was far removed 
from the dreamy, visionary theorist. There are many 
impractical people who say they believe many things which 
sensible people know are not true. These visionaries tell 
of a society in the future and paint a picture of a new earth 
and a reconstructed society in novels, parables, poems in 
which they describe in detail the great cooperative common- 
wealth. Beyond its merit as fiction to interest and amuse, 
it is not worth the paper it is written on. Spalding, on the 
contrary, used his reason and observation freely and bravely 
and found out the cause of evil, the tendencies which make 
for cure, and then by faith accepted them and made every 
effort to enforce them. " There are two kinds of Socialism,'' 
he declared, "Utopian SociaHsm and Scientific Socialism. 
I have no interest in the former. There is a good deal of 
difference between faith and imagination. You can build 
air castles by imagination, but faith is different. Scientific 
Socialism is in line with faith. Utopian Socialism is imagi- 
nation. The time must come when the people must own 
the capital. Labor must not be paid wages but what labor 
creates. The conditions must be gotten right." 

Socialism had a spiritual influence on Spalding himself. 
It brought to him truth and hope. Moreover, it made him 
more patient and charitable than when he believed that 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 251 

God's method of making mankind good and strong was to 
give to a few persons great wealth in order that they might 
bestow it in ahns upon the poor, or, as benefactors, support 
colleges, charities and churches. Rich men, he knew, are 
not their own masters, but only part of an economic system, 
in which fierce competition makes men selfish in spite of 
themselves, and in which the struggle for success demands 
most of their time and thought. While he honored all 
generous and kind-hearted men and women and was grate- 
ful to them for rising above the sordid selfishness about them, 
he felt that human society will not be organized according 
to the will of God until justice takes the place of charity, 
and the Cooperative Commonwealth replaces the regime 
of individualistic competition. 

To the ^'Christian Socialist" for November, 1911, Bishop 
Spalding contributed an article, "Socialism and Christian- 
ity," which stated his position clearly and at length. The 
two words he held, in spite of the confusion in the minds 
of both Christians and Socialists, are not contradictory, 
but supplementary, and that, therefore. Socialists who 
declare that Christians must be mere sentimentalists and 
Christians who assert that Socialists are of necessity ungodly, 
are both mistaken. Both those contentions he examined 
carefully and discarded as untrue. The Christian, Spalding 
told the Socialists, has the advantage over Karl Marx 
because he knows the name of the Truth which illuminated 
Marx's mind, of the Power which gave him his moral 
courage and of the Love which made him faithful unto death. 
The Socialist, on the other hand, possessed in the "Materi- 
alistic Conception of History" and the "Class-Struggle" 
two truths which the Christian must learn. 

Bishop Spalding reminded his Christian readers that panic- 
stricken Christian apologists denounced evolution as godless 



252 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

and materialistic when Charles Darwin first published the 
*^ Origin of Species," but that now all thoughtful defenders 
of the Christian faith write their apologetics in the light of 
evolution. As the Church gained a flood of light upon the 
character of God and the nature of man when she accepted 
the evolutionary theory, so surely will she receive new 
guidance in her task of saving the bodies and souls of men 
when she accepts Marx^s "Materialistic Conception of His- 
tory." That truth will force the Church to see the impor- 
tance of environment, a truth she must learn if she is to 
hasten the coming of the Kingdom of her Master. 

"The Class-Struggle," a phrase which causes quite as 
much perplexity to Christian people, is a contribution of 
Socialism to the Church. If there is an exploited class, is 
it not the Christian thing to make them conscious of the 
injustice to which they are subjected, and the imchristian 
thing to dope the stupid with charity and bribe the ambitious 
with patronage? The revolution, which is to transform 
the present political state of competing classes into the 
coming industrial democracy cannot be a bloody revolution. 
It can come to stay, Spalding said, only by coming through 
peaceful and rational, though none the less as compared 
to present standards, radical and revolutionary action. He 
held that the Christian should try to inspire the workers 
whose rights require it, to struggle for the social trans- 
formation precisely as St. Paul in the name of Christ re- 
quired the individual to become a new creature. 

All the sincerity and love of truth, all the high sense of 
honor and demand for fair play, which characterized the 
boyhood and college days of Frank Spalding, were merged 
into what those who once felt its power could only recog- 
nize as a prophet's vision of the wrongs of society and a 
prophet's championship of those who were oppressed. The 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 253 

Gospel which he preached was as truly revolutionary as 
Isaiah's. For the time beiag it is a gospel not of peace 
but of the sword. It will set a man at variance with those 
of his own household. Spalding experienced again and 
again the mortification of misunderstanding, the pain of 
fierce opposition, as hard to bear at times as the pain of 
martyrdom. He preached his gospel with a joyous en- 
thusiasm that had nothing of the narrow fanaticism and 
intolerance in it which is often found in men of intense 
conviction. 

The culmination of his career as a preacher of justice 
was reached at the General Convention held in New York 
in October 191 3. The address which he delivered in the 
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, prepared with great care 
and earnest prayer the summer before, was his gospel. Who 
that was present can ever forget the sight of his tall, spare 
figure in the pulpit and the consecration of the man ? The 
zeal of the great cause consumed him, the word of God 
burned like fire in his bones as in Jeremiah's and made his 
every utterance a lambent and searching flame. The 
storms of the Rockies were in that appeal, their lightnings 
and crashes of thunder in those incisive words. It was one 
of the most dramatic scenes ever witnessed in an American 
church. But for sustained argument, abundance of proof, 
and comprehensive statement the sermon of Spalding 
in the Church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, a few days 
later, went far beyond it. It was then that he reached the 
full stature of his spiritual power. That sermon was pro- 
nounced absolutely the most uncompromising utterance 
ever made in an American pulpit. 

He told the story of the revolt of the Jews under Moses 
against the master class of Eg3^t. "If this were only the 
story of Egypt," he then said, "it would be hardly worth 



I 

254 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

taking time to tell. It described the year 1913 a.d., and the 
United States of America. He gave the figures and the 
facts that show a propertyless working class consisting of 
three-fourths of the men, women and children of the nation. 
He described philanthropy, reUgion, thrift, what they did 
and how they failed. "Therefore, some of us have come 
to the conclusion Moses was driven to. We want to leave 
the Egypt where Pharaoh owned the tools of production . . .. 
and march out to the new commonwealth where things 
exist for men and men are not sacrificed for things, where 
little children have a chance to live and where there will 
be time and desire to worship God and to serve Him. Shall 
we not follow Moses? Alas, our wise and godly teachers 
will not let us make even the beginning of the journey to 
the promised land." He discussed the attitude of bishops 
toward capitalists and the criticism of Socialism on the 
part of editors. "If one wants a hopeful field in which to 
plant the seeds of righteousness he will find it in the hearts 
of the proletariat, not in the hearts of the capitalists. There 
is far more altruism in a sympathetic strike to raise wages 
than in a capitalistic combine to raise prices." To the 
objection that Socialism would destroy all incentive, Spald- 
ing answered, "according to this theory, when Jesus said 
to Simon Peter, 'Leave your nets and foUow me!' he was 
calling Peter from selfish competition which was making 
him trustworthy and efficient to a life of unpaid service 
which would make him unreliable and lazy." As for 
the criticism that Socialism destroys the family, Spald- 
ing showed that insufficient wages destroys families. "In 
the cooperative commonwealth the monogamic family 
will come to its own." Here are the facts of our twentieth- 
century industrial Hfe. The workers have nothing but their 
labor to sell, they sell it for wages, and those wages depend 



THE CHURCH AND SOCIALISM 255 

upon the supply of laborers and the demand for them, not 
upon the value the laborer creates. On the other hand, 
the capitalists own the land and tools of production and 
take as their share profits, rent and interest. Industrial 
classes are therefore inevitable. The abolition of the class 
struggle can only be accompHshed by abolishing the system 
which necessitates conflicting class interests. 

The substitution of cooperation for competition is revo- 
lution. "The evolutionist may wish to feel his way for- 
ward, never quite breaking with the past, walking by right ; 
but the revolutionist, when he is convinced that a course 
is right, breaks with precedent and marches straight into 
the Red Sea of the imexplored future. Moses had faith 
in the capacity of dispirited classes to become true sons of 
Abraham, the friend of God.^' Moses was a revolutionist. 
The Hero of the New Testament, One infinitely greater 
than Moses, was also a revolutionist. If the Church to-day 
would be a Moses to mankind she must repudiate the present 
social system which makes it almost impossible for milUons 
to beheve there is a just and loving God and that sinful, 
weary men are His children. 

Such being Spalding's convictions he conceived that 
it was his duty to try to make the Church see that she 
must cease to be the almoner of the rich and become the 
champion of the poor. "It is a definite choice," he said. 
"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." 

To a Friend 
(This letter was written only four days before his death.) 

Sept. 21, 1914. 

"I expect all Churchmen who have any social outlook must 
often feel as you feel. I know I do. And yet I can't feel that 



256 PRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

I would be doing right if I took the step that you took, and left 
the Church. It seems to me my main job is to try to make the 
Church make her contribution, and I can do a lot more inside 
than I could outside. Besides that, I am a religious animal, 
and I propose to stay in the religious union. I don't want to 
be a religious scab unless the union puts me out." 



XVI 

Man Among Men 

His sister spoke the truth when she wrote, at the time of 
his election to the episcopate, "Frank knows what a bishop 
ought to be." His father had been a bishop since Frank 
could remember, and for six years the son served under the 
father. As rector of St. Paul's he had been a keen observer 
of the ways of bishops. It was his conviction that as bishop 
he must not attempt to run parishes but be a shepherd of 
priests. The personal relationships between Bishop Spald- 
ing and the men who served under him in Utah were as vital 
a part of his ministry as his interest in a new social order 
and his consecration to missions. He never lost sight of 
the individual in his work for the Church. 

The missionary bishop has a power over clergymen which 
no diocesan bishop possesses. He assigns them to their 
cures, except in the case of organized parishes, determines 
the size of their salaries, increases them or lowers them and 
regulates their vacations. Episcopal government in the 
missionary field is largely personal government, the rule of 
men, not the rule of law. The only recourse clergymen 
have in case of unfair treatment at the hands of their bishop, 
is that of the common working man, the right to quit work. 
The only restraint upon the bishop is the difficulty of getting 
good men and of keeping them for any length of time. 

Bishop Spalding was ever helping some young man attain 
an education. He urged men to go to college or to other 
s 257 



258 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

schools where they would develop their special talents. In 
the course of his ministry he assisted as many as seven 
young men financially. He said that having no children 
of his own, the best he could do was to help the children of 
others to get an education. He often questioned whether 
he would have gone to college had he not been sent, and he 
was especially eager to assist ambitious young men who had 
a less advantageous environment than he himself had en- 
joyed. 

To a Princetonian 

Oct. 18. 

I want to interest you in a young man in the Freshman class. 
He is trying to work his way through college. No one is helping 
him but myself and my resources are limited. I am sure the 
boy has the right sort of stuff in him, and only needs the chance. 
He hopes to be a clergjnnan, although I have been very careful 
not to pledge him in any way because I think one can decide that 
when too young. 

Bishop Spalding invariably met a new man on his arrival 
in Salt Lake, no matter how many hours late the train 
might be. On the return of his workers from their vaca- 
tions the Bishop was the first to greet them at the station. 
When they knew how busy his life was this personal atten- 
tion took hold of them. He also remembered birthdays 
and anniversaries. When circumstances arose which made 
it necessary for men to leave the District he made special 
efforts to get them places elsewhere. 

His men went to him with their problems of faith and 
work and duty. Then he was at his best. His analytical 
mind laid bare the difficulties of their problems and the 
alternatives or solutions. He had the rare faculty of lifting 
subjects to higher levels. Whatever the business in hand, 
the man found that he had gone away with something to 



MAN AMONG MEN 259 

think about of an intellectual character. Sometimes he 
read paragraphs from an article he was reading or some 
address he was preparing in order to clear his own mind by 
discussing it. The more opposed a man was to his ideas 
and arguments the better Spalding liked it. If he was 
unusually interested he stood up and walked over to the 
radiator, and, warming his hands by half sitting on them 
there, delivered his arguments with his keenest humor. 
"I hate to agree with you,'' he once said to one of his men, 
"because the point is debatable, and, as you know, I like 
to argue.'' 

In his conversation he had an engaging way of taking the 
man into his confidence. "We must plan together" was 
a favorite expression with him. A stenographer in the 
Missions House in New York, accustomed to meeting 
bishops, has said that Bishop Spalding, in presenting a 
matter of business to her, took her as much into his con- 
fidence and explained the situation to her as carefully and 
as courteously as though she were the President of the 
Board. He was not above treating the humblest with 
true respect. 

He labored to maintain his judgment in independence of 
his affections, and of personal influences not pertinent to 
the issue. "A. is one of the kind that appeals to your sym- 
pathy so that you can't tell him straight what you think of 
him, though I have put it pretty straight this time." Once 
he was asked to buy some furniture from one of his mis- 
sionaries for the mission property. The missionary had 
allowed his property to be used by the mission for some time 
and now asked the Bishop either to buy it or else have it 
stored for his future use. Bishop Spalding saw the justice 
of the request but also saw that the missionary expected 
him to pay more than it was worth. So he said at once, 



26o FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

"Let's bargain, I'm going to be a Jew now for this is a purely 
business matter and I must do just as well as I can and pay 
neither more nor less than your furniture would bring, if 
sold to a dealer." The humor of the situation struck the 
missionary and he said, "No, thanks, it is worth more than 
that to me." "Then," said Spalding, "perhaps you will 
loan the furniture to the Bishop for the mission house for 
another year or two or rent it to me ? " " How much salary 
should I offer my assistant," one of his men wrote him. 
The answer was, "Be as close as possible and still be a 
Christian." 

Before Spalding accepted the bishopric he wrote his 
mother, "You know if I go, I go to stay." His men knew 
that their leader would never desert them and they accord- 
ingly gave to him their utmost allegiance. He did not be- 
lieve in missionary bishops giving up their districts at the 
call of larger dioceses. When too infirm to be of active 
service in the field he would have them become missionary 
speakers for the field under the direction of the Board of 
Missions. His men also knew that his begging trips East 
or West were anything but pleasure trips. "Tell me," he 
would write his men, "can I do Utah more good by staying 
here and breaking in a new part, say the San Pete Valley, 
and visiting the people, — or can I benefit the District 
more by going East for two months and trying to raise 
money ? Help me to think that out. If I don't get enough 
money to do what must be done — I suppose I'll have to 
go East after Christmas, but somehow I can't see how the 
good Lord will make me do that." 

When he had attained national distinction as a speaker 
he received many invitations to preach and make addresses, 
which he generally declined. "I thought I ought not to do 
it" he wrote, when he was asked to speak on the same 



MAN AMONG MEN 261 

platform in Portland with Governor Woodrow Wilson. 
"When there are so few clergy in Utah I surely ought to 
give all my time to my own district." 

His clergy knew also that he gave to them longer vaca- 
tions than he took himself. Only once in his episcopate 
did his vacation exceed a month, and that was the year he 
went abroad to address the Pan- Anglican Congress. 

Into his inmost confidence he took his fellow workers. 
"If you have been troubled," he wrote to one of his men, 
"with reference to the possibility of being asked to work 
where ^the freedom with which Christ has made us free' is 
limited, so have I, and many many times, though for the 
last month more deeply than ever before. My speech to 
the A club, has not only interfered with the work at B, but 
it has interfered with the work in Utah because it has branded 
me in the eyes of the good old-fashioned people, who are 
the generous people, as an unsafe and an unorthodox man. 
Bishop C. is here and he told me lovingly but frankly that 
this was the reason I was not getting money. Now I 
cannot sell my right to tell the truth as I feel God shows 
it to me. I must say it in love and I must choose wisely 
the place and time for saying it, but say it I must. You 
are more of an individual than I am. Upon me depends 
the support of the workers in the field and their wives 
and f amihes. The question forces itself upon me — * Have 
you any right to be a bishop ? ' because as an old friend of 
mine to whom I was talking the other day said to me, *a 
bishop must be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove,' 
and I don't think I was made to be either. 

Bishop Spalding met the test of the true executive, he 
shared responsibility with his co-workers and made them 
take it. To the young men, fresh from the seminary, 
whom he sent to Logan, he said, "You must be the bishop 



262 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

in that section of the District. Let me come in and help 
you when I can be of any help." When a speech of his on 
Mormonism seemed to hamper their efforts in Logan, they 
frankly told him so, and asked him to keep silent on that 
particular subject in Logan for one year. "Of course I 
will," was his ready reply, "you are the bishop here." On 
arriving at Vernal he found his missionary at work filling 
his ice house. The Bishop pitched in and worked with 
him until the job was done. On another visit he and Mr. 
Hersey made the coffin and dug the grave for a little Indian 
boy who had died. Spalding was a bishop who worked with 
men no less than for them. 

There were some men who failed to respond to his appeal. 

To His Mother 

Nov. 18. 

Mr. X, the clergyman here, is the oddest man I have ever 
known. When I first wrote to him that I was coming up he re- 
plied that it was a free country and that if I wanted to come 
I could, but that since he didn't care to see me he should cer- 
tainly leave the town. He said he never wanted to see me until 
I apologized for my rude, cruel and unjust treatment and made 
his salary up to $1200 a year from the time he arrived. Well, 
I tried to overcome evil with good and wrote a long letter try- 
ing to make clear to him that I didn't have a mint of money 
and that it was my duty to see whether he made good at Park 
City before I advised raising his salary. He did not answer 
the letter at all and I came up not knowing whether I would see 
him or not. I walked up to the church in time for Sunday School 
and he was there and we greeted each other and I took a Sunday 
School class. I had suggested in my letter that he preach once 
and I would preach the other time. So he preached in the 
morning a very good sermon on the second lesson. After the 
service we had a little talk standing, and when my back was 
turned for a moment he left the church and I turned around to 



MAN AMONG MEN 263 

find myself alone. He said that talking would do no good — 
that he had given his ultimatmn. He said ''Think of but six 
people out last Sunday to hear a magnificent sermon by my- 
self," all in absolute seriousness. When I tried to advise a bit 
that if the town was so bad it was his chance to improve it, he 
retorted, "You can't tell me anything. I have held larger po- 
sitions than you'll ever hold. I have influenced more people 
than you'll ever have a chance to influence and I've had larger 
salaries than you ever will have." 

During the afternoon he did not come near me nor did he ask 
me to call on him. At night I preached and he read the service 
and read it well, and after the service I said, "Come around to- 
morrow morning and we can talk things over more carefully." 
"Talking will do no good. America is going to the dogs. I'll 
go away as soon as I can to some place where I can really in- 
fluence people." Again I urged that Park City needed help 
but he said "I could only stay here if I had a big enough salary 
to live in proper style. I wish to bring my wife on here but 
I couldn't bring her here unless she had a servant to wait on 
her. When the minister receives less than the working people 
they will not look up to him and respect him. If I had my way 
I would change all this." I hmnbly urged that "if he would 
change it all then perhaps Park City might pay him the salary 
he felt he ought to have." When I repeated as we walked out 
of the church, "Come and see me in the morning," he said a 
very stiff "good night" and this morning he hasn't come near. 
I kept my temper and I can see the pathos of the situation. He 
thinks he is capable of being Archbishop of Canterbury and he 
isn't captivating Park City ! But it was funny to hear him urge 
on the people in his sermon the grace of humility ! 

Some of the people like him and perhaps that high and mighty 
method is needed to make the English people here sit up and 
take notice. Then I suppose it is a good thing for bishops to 
be taught how insignificant they are, and the other men are all 
so good to me, that it brings me to a proper state of humility 
to be told how incompetent I am." 



264 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

One of the hardest things Bishop Spalding ever did was 
to depose one of his clergy from the ministry. He was in 
the East raising money for St. Mark's Hospital when he 
was informed of the charges against the man. The Canons 
of the Church prescribe clearly what he should do and he 
did it. The hardest part of it to Bishop Spalding was, that 
the man's vindication was only possible by means of the 
proven conspiracy of two other clergymen in an infernal 
plot to ruin him. To save the one was to ruin the two, to 
save the two was to ruin the one. "Just what the future 
has in store for the Church in Salt|Lake and its bishop I do 
not know,'' wrote Spalding, "but the prayer for a right 
judgment will be said a good many times. It was hard 
for me to listen because I felt that two defenders acted in 
a hopelessly stupid way and that his friends are his very 
worst advisers. I have thought and prayed over it." 
When the preliminary commission reported and ordered a 
trial, Spalding gave to the accused man the choice of his 
own judges. The offer was refused, in high dudgeon, the 
man declaring that he could get no justice in Spalding's 
jurisdiction. The verdict was "guilty" and was sustained 
on appeal to the higher court. The man had his admirers, 
some of whom never forgave the Bishop for not quashing 
the affair at the start. The one thing for which he had no 
toleration was the dereliction of moral duty in a minister of 
Christ. For wide divergence from orthodoxy or intellectual 
opinion he had utmost consideration but on the moral law 
he stood as erect and austere as the Wasatch above Provo. 

"Too bad Dr. Crapsey is condemned, it can do absolutely 
no good that I can see, " he wrote after that unhappy chapter 
in the history of the Episcopal Church. One man who 
shared Dr. Crapsey's view of the Virgin Birth wrote to 
Spalding and offered his services. He was a man of Intel- 



MAN AMONG MEN 265 

lectual integrity, just graduating from the General Theo- 
logical Seminary, and felt that it was incumbent upon him 
to confide in his bishop. ., That shepherd of souls rewarded 
his confidence by excluding him from the diocesan fold. 
Trained for the ministry, eager to follow Christ as Lord and 
Master, the young man appHed to a diocese in the Middle 
West, only to meet with an episcopal rebuff. Then he 
wrote to Bishop Spalding, teUing him that he wanted to 
serve Christ and men and giving him a full account of his 
behef and his experiences. Spalding immediately told him 
to come to Utah. He met him at the station, judged him 
to be a man of intellectual ability, moral integrity and 
Christian zeal. He put him out in a mining camp eighty 
miles from a railroad, and when the man made good, he 
ordained him. What interested him in men was their 
loyalty to Christ, not their intellectual orthodoxy or heresy. 
"'I suspect," he wrote at the time, ** that we are all in danger 
of making Christ mean what we think He ought to mean 
instead of humbly letting Him teach us. Loyalty to Christ 
and loyalty to the Church do not mean the same thing. 
The High Churchman says that they do mean the same and 
yet he certainly does make Christ say and teach what he 
wants Him to.'* 

Spalding did not, however, as some Broad Churchmen 
do, discount the value of belief. He put it where it be- 
longs, not in the three-fourths but in the one-fourth of life. 

Jan. 23, 1914. 
I'm busy trying to write a paper on the subject Creed and 
Conduct. I find that most of the men on our Social Service 
Commission do not want any article on Mormonism because they 
do not believe it makes any difference what a man believes. I 
want to show that it makes every difference. I've almost fin- 
ished it but I'm not quite sure whether it is logical. 



?66 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

He made a practice of writing papers for clerical 
conferences and interdenominational ministers' meetings. 
One of the first papers he wrote, "The Influence of In- 
duction on Theology," written while rector of St. PauPs, 
did more to clarify his thinking than any one thing, so he 
told his men in Utah. Among such essays were reviews of 
Bergson's " Creative Evolution," James' "Pragmatism" and 
Churchill's "Inside of the Cup." His longest time for 
reading was on the trains, and he put it to fruitful use, read- 
ing at all odd moments such books as " The Life of Maurice," 
Gwatkin's "Knowledge of God," Haeckel, and Lodge's 
"Reply to Haeckel," Shailer Mathews' books,Rauschenbusch, 
Hart's " Ecclesia," Gore and Hatch on the " Organization of 
the Church," The ' Hibbert Journal' and the * Harvard Theo- 
logical Review.' He felt that the temptation of a bishop's 
life is to become absorbed in necessary but petty business 
details and routine, and therefore to fall back on old sermons, 
and to drift gradually out of the current of modern thought. 
He labored to find time to keep his own intellect alive. He 
loved to talk to people on the trains and as he became better 
acquainted he met more people he knew on the cars. But 
he also saw the danger of it. "If I can't read there, I don't 
know where I can get a chance to read." In the prepara- 
tion of addresses, as in the essays, he took great pains. 
"Before we went into the convention of the Brotherhood 
of St. Andrew, Bishop A. said to me, * what am I to speak 
about? I haven't the remotest idea and have given the 
subject no thought. Shall have to get my speech from what 
you say. I seem to have the gift or the power of talking 
any length of time without saying much! ' So he put down 
his watch and kept going, beginning with congratulations 
and fehcitations and closing with pious exhortations to 
loyalty and prayer. I was down to speak on the active 



MAN AMONG MEN 267 

work side and he on the spiritual side." Of such flippant 
treatment of rehgion Spalding was never guilty. "As I 
grow older/' he wrote, "I lose my nerve. I want to pre- 
pare too carefully. I somehow must read all the books and 
write the whole thing out carefully and it takes a lot of 
time." What he himself did, he commended to his mis- 
sionaries. "Give them 3^our best. Remember that their 
opportunities to listen to educated men are usually very 
infrequent. It pays you to put your very best thought 
into sermons to these small congregations." A hard-headed 
man once said to him after service, "That is the first logical 
sermon I have heard in years." He preached the same ser- 
mon to six people in a mining camp, and with equal vigor 
and earnestness, that he preached in the Cathedral in New 
York to a thousand and more people. There were men 
whom he was glad to see move on. In Provo at one time 
he had a clergyman who changed the hour of evening ser- 
vice to afternoon "because so many of the Mormon students 
were coming in the evening. They didn't behave very well, 
and it took a good deal of- effort to keep them quiet and 
interested. So he changed the hour of service to after- 
noon when they couldn't come, and there could be just the 
orderly congregation — * of our own people.' Isn't it funny, 
when the main thing is to get the Mormons to come ? He 
wiU go away in June and that will close that policy." 

Then there was the man who moved on for conscientious 
reasons. 

May 22, 1906. 
S. is an earnest man but very narrow and very gloomy. 
He seems to feel doubtful about the righteousness of a smile, 
and cultivates the somber look of a man who has lost his last 
friend. I do not know whether I can win his confidence or not. 
Judge is a Baptist and Mrs. a CongregationaHst and 



2 68 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

both are good Christian people. I told them to come to the 
Holy Communion, feeHng that sometime they would be con- 
firmed. Well S. cannot agree with me. So he went and asked 
them to be confirmed and when they said they could never go 
to any other church but the Episcopal but were not ready to 
be confirmed, that it would almost break the Judge^s father's 
heart for he is a leading Baptist divine, — forbade their coming 
any more to the Holy Communion. They told him they had 
talked to me and that I said they could come, but S. replied that 
he could not agree with me ; that law was law and the law said 
only the confirmed might commune; that, of course, he must 
obey his bishop but that meant that he must find another bishop. 
I have tried to quote him authority, for my own seems not to 
count with him a bit. I've told him that Dr. Jewett and Dr. 
Richey at the Seminary and my father felt as I did ; that of course 
he could find others who took the strict view; that he was 
certainly in good company if he took the broader, kindlier view. 
But so far I haven't budged him. Mrs. S. was a Methodist, 
before he married her, she had to be confirmed, why should 
others be allowed to commune without confirmation? I told 
him I thought he ought to think of confirmation rather as a bless- 
ing than as a legal requirement, but that hasn't appealed to him. 
It's too bad such a good fellow insists on such a hard, stern, un- 
bending view of things." 

He identified himself with his workers in detecting and 
revealing the shortcomings of missionaries. We mission- 
aries, he would say need this and that. 

Feb. 3, 1910. 

I find things in a dreadful muddle and I'm afraid it is the 
fault of our workers. They seem to have antagonized the whole 
town by their pharisaical attitude. I wonder whether we mis- 
sionaries are not a badly spoiled lot. I spoke to the super- 
intendent, a good man, of Miss X. (one of his mission- 
aries who was also a worker under the Government). "I 



MAN AMONG MEN 269 

should be sorry to lose Miss X., she is a * capable emplo^'^ee.' 
I felt brought down to the earth with a bump, for it is a far 
cry from a "heroic consecrated missionary" to a "capable em- 
ployee" isn't it? That is quite a come down from what I have 
always called her, what the Church calls her, and what she calls 
herself. Miss A. has talked so much against everybody, — 
she being the Pharisee and all the others the Publicans — that 
she has made herself very unpopular. Miss B. it seems has 
nothing to do with the church or Sunday School so that the 
other missionaries have the idea that she has lost all her faith 
and interest in religion. But she informs me that she has four 
boys and six girls to be baptized and two to be confirmed ! Cer- 
tainly the Christian religion doesn't seem to make people easy 
to live with. I wish I had the power to keep people humble. 

D. & R. G. R.R. 
June 23, 19H. 

A. is a very elegant little man and I think the life at B. will 
do him a lot of good if he is man enough to endure it. I had 
told him to take a tourist car from St. Louis to Denver, but he 
said he couldn't do it; that he bought a berth in a tourist car 
but there were two niggers as passengers in it and he had never 
ridden in the same car with a nigger and never would. He 
said the nigger has no right in any connection with the white 
man except to work for him, and I suppose that thought enabled 
him to put up with the porter in the standard car. It is so 
hard to keep one's temper with such people. 

B. has done no harm. He seems to have the idea that he is 
appointed to H. by the Apostolic Succession and that therefore 
the people ought to bow down and obey. I suggested that a 
better figure would be that he was nominated for office by an 
unpopular party and it was his duty by personal attractiveness 
to get votes, which horrified him as quite uncatholic. 

When the self-governing parishes fell vacant Bishop 
Spalding made no effort to force upon their vestries a man 



270 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

of his own choice. There were times when he beheved one 
of his own clergy was the best man for St. Paul's, Salt Lake 
City, or the Cathedral, and he would like to have seen one 
of his men rewarded by such promotion ; on the other hand, 
he wanted the parish to take responsibility for their own 
choice and to acquire the strength which comes from inde- 
pendence. There were times, however, when he felt, "I'm 
a very poor bishop because I am not forceful enough. I 
do not get men into the best places and use them up to the 
fullness of their efficiency." 

Jan. 8, 191 1. 

It is the sixth anniversary of my arrival in Utah and I preached 
this morning in the Cathedral. I gave a straight and simple 
statement of the work which has been done and it is quite a good 
record, and yet there is so much more to be done than has been 
done, that it's hard to be encouraged. To-night I'm down at 
St. Paul's. I wish they would take either N. or M. but I see 
no prospect of their doing it. 

I don't get along very fast with my sermon for Sanford's 
consecration and I must begin to write it out this week. Per- 
haps as I write new ideas will come. I suppose, though, now 
that I am nearly 46 years old, I'U not have any new ideas. I 
wonder whether father would still feel the same about the Episco- 
pate if he had read all the modern books. I simply cannot be- 
lieve in the high church contention. The evidence is all against 
the exclusive claims of the Church. I'm tr3dng to get real good 
and orthodox by reading Bishop Gore's "Order and Duty," 
but his arguments seem to me entirely inconclusive. However, 
there are to be eight bishops there and I will think and pray over 
it very hard, so that what I do say I'll be willing to stand for. 
IVe begun to take the "Living Church" again because I do want 
to read both sides. 

I'm sure Paul Jones would make a splendid secretary of the 
Eighth Department. I'm going to nominate him, but I do hate 



MAN AMONG MEN 27 1 

to lose him. Next year I'll have to appeal for mefir, A change 
must come sometime because A. and B. will be wanted for larger 
work, and even though they may be willing to stay here their 
fathers and mothers are unhappy about their being so much 
out of the line of promotion. They feel as my father felt about 
my going to Erie. 

The problem of the new town made him question his 
ability as a constructive organizer. His personal relations 
with the ministers of other churches were always cordial 
and close. And he was especially concerned lest, by putting 
forth his own Church, he weaken the influence of true re- 
ligion. "It does seem wicked to double up churches in 
small towns where the protest against Mormonism ought 
not to be divided. I tell you the Mormons are keeping 
up with things. In spite of all my socialistic theories I 
seem to be of value only as an individual preacher and not 
as a constructive organizer." It was frequently a com- 
plicated problem. In Myton, for example, Mr. Hersey of 
Vernal established a "union*' Sunday School. Later a 
Presbyterian clergyman founded a church in M^'^ton and 
tried to annex the "Union'' Sunday School. In other 
places where ministers of other churches had established 
their work he resolved "to do nothing that is likely to hurt 
the work of good men." At the General Convention of 1913 
he pleaded for a genuine alignment of the Episcopal Church 
with other churches in the Federal Council of Churches. 

The Convocation of the District was an event in the lives 
of the men. Bishop Spalding was given a sum of money to 
make it possible for every man to attend. "It was the 
best Convocation we have ever had," he wrote in 19 14. 
"Everybody who was appointed to take part did well be- 
cause they had made careful preparation and the discussions 
were all to the point." 



272 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

He believed that every one had good points and he tried 
to appreciate them. After seeing Forbes Robertson in 
**The Third Floor Back" he wrote : 

Dec. 9, 191 1. 

I suppose the way we can help the good in others to have its 
chance is by being our simple natural selves, but when that 
thought is a character it must be made more dignified and other 
worldly. To me the lesson which was so consistently taught was 
that criticism isn't worth hah as much as commendation. I 
know it is far easier for me to pick flaws than to praise virtues. 
I wonder whether that is really and always true. Didn't our 
Lord tell Peter that he was like Satan as weU as tell him he was 
a Rock. I'm incUned to think that sometimes before the good 
has a fair chance the self satisfaction in the bad must be knocked 
out and that takes hard blows. Nicodemus had to be called a 
baby, when he thought he was a very nice man, before he could 
be born from above, i.e., let the divine and true part of him really 
live. 

Bishop Spalding's humor and hximility made him irre- 
sistible as a leader of men. They were surprised and at- 
tracted by these traits in his character. He possessed so 
obviously a strong, manly self-assertiveness, he expressed 
his opinion in no uncertain nor unqualified way, he was 
so commanding in poise, and big and courageous in what 
he undertook. And yet he had extraordinary modesty. 
He seemed devoid of any more than an adequate conscious- 
ness of his intellectual and spiritual power. His position 
as a bishop brought him no pride but rather the gravest 
humiliation over his unfitness for the responsibility it placed 
upon him. 

The man was strong and fearless because he was ready 
to sacrifice everything for Utah. Had he hoped to be called 
to an Eastern diocese he never would have given the speech 



MAN AMONG MEN 273 

at the General Convention, or criticized before his own 
Convocation the action of New Jersey in extending a 
call to the Bishop of the Philippines. 

To Bishop Brent 

I was impressed last Spring, when the "Home Missions Coun- 
cil" met in Salt Lake City, with the absolute importance of having 
on our Board of Missions experts for the different parts of the mis- 
sion field. When I met in Salt Lake the Home Missionary Sec- 
retaries of the Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congre- 
gationalists and so forth, and realized what keen intelligent men 
they were, I couldn't help wishing that on our Board of Mis- 
sions there was a man equally expert as to our Domestic field. 
Then, too, these men raised money as well as advised about its 
expenditure. The Executive Committee of the Board of Mis- 
sions seems to me more a distributing agency than a producing 
agency. There is a movement on the part of the Board to per- 
suade all the Domestic bishops to go on the foreign missionary 
basis and Bishop Beecher has done so. It would be a great 
relief for Utah to be on that basis but I have been in Utah for 
ten years and I know, for certain, that I don't begin to under- 
stand the Mormon question and I, therefore, can't help feeling 
that John W. Wood, genius though he be, can hardly understand 
the Mormon question along with the Chinese question, the 
Japanese question, the PhiHppine Islands question and all the other 
questions. If, on the other hand, there was on the Board of 
Missions a representative of the VIII Province, whose business 
it was to find out all he could about Utah then I'd be more than 
glad to have Utah on the foreign missionary basis. 

But may I say that I was particularly grateful to learn that 
you are opposed to the election of missionary bishops to dioceses. 
I am afraid I was pretty fresh in my Convocation address in 
referring to your election to the Diocese of New Jersey but I 
lived five years in New Jersey and felt that I knew something 
about the situation there. All the reasons that you assign for 



274 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

being opposed to missionary bishops being elected diocesan 
bishops seem to me to be absolutely vaHd, and, although perhaps 
it is a Httle unpleasant to mention, I also believe that the ad- 
ditional reason I ventured to give is a real one. When there is 
a dead-lock it's very convenient to run in a missionary bishop as 
a dark horse. Being already in the House of Bishops his elec- 
tion is not so much a party victory. I am about the last man 
fitted to be a diocesan bishop and yet I have actually been 
approached in regard to election to three dioceses, so I can ap- 
preciate, although of course only to a small degree, the per- 
plexity and mental discomfort that you have been put to con- 
tinually. 

to His Mother 

June 21, 1914. 

Here is my address. It's just what you say I ought not to do. 
It puts me in Utah until I die and that is the way it ought to be, 
unless I fail to make good in Utah. Then the Board can send 
me somewhere else. Mr. A. said it settled the old question 
whether a man could ordain or marry himself. I did both to 
myself and Utah. 

I've been both to St. Peter's and St. Paul's and had dinner 
down there. It makes one sort of homesick for the old parish 
life — this preaching to the same congregation each Sunday and 
talking to the same Sunday School. 

I wish you would correct the idea that I have been recommend- 
ing any man for St. Paul's, Erie. I've never tried in any way to 
meddle with St. Paul's since I left it. 

With aU his humility he was quick to defend the dignity 
of the missionary. When a vacancy occurred in the mis- 
sionary episcopate Bishop Spalding asked Bishop Nichols 
why he did not nominate Mr. Parsons of Berkeley. "Par- 
sons," replied the Bishop, "is too big a man for the mission 
field, he is needed for some diocese." "No man," replied 
Spalding, " is big enough for the mission field." 



MAN AMONG MEN 275 

March i8, 1914. 
^'Did you see the fine editorial in the Spirit of Missions about 
the Bishop Tuttle fifty years memorial. I called John Wood's 
attention to the St. Louis proposal to build a church there, say- 
ing I thought it was all wrong to celebrate a man who won fame 
because he had been a missionary bishop, by building a city 
church." 

In the mountains of Utah the highest spiritual idealism 
of this generation foimd expression, in the little company of 
men around Spalding. It recalls to mind a little company 
that once gathered in Athens and another group which as- 
sembled in Jerusalem. Young men from the seminary, and 
others from parishes, went to Utah to work, drawn there by 
this inspiring leader. As they entered more deeply into 
his confidence they found themselves uplifted and strength- 
ened to fight for Christ and humanity. Money may have 
been lost by their superb heroism, but men were won. In 
their moments of discouragement and perplexity it was his 
imconquerable assurance that cheered them. "As far as 
we can see, it is a job that needs to be done. As far as we 
can see there is no one else to do it. We must not stop to 
argue about our fitness. Trying is our business. Success 
is in God^s hands." 



XVII 

Manoach 

** Don't hire a man to do any carpentry work that I can 
do because I love to do that sort of thing." So Frank 
Spalding wrote his mother in Jime, 191 4, as he looked for- 
ward to his simimer vacation. The family owned a beautiful 
ranch for their summer home in the upper Platte Canon 
about sixty miles west of Denver, to which he had given 
the Hebrew name "Manoach" or "place of rest." There 
it was Frank's custom to spend his summer vacations with 
his mother and sisters. At Manoach he was not the bishop, 
only the son, the brother and the friend. And yet he 
brought to that haven of rest all the gathered wealth of 
thought and experience of a Hfe full of exciting incident 
and spiritual adventure. 

Not granted the privilege and joy of having a family of 
his own, his love of home, which was deep, was concentrated 
upon the home of his mother. No man could be a more 
completely devoted son. The obedience which he rendered 
to his mother's every wish was as absolute as if he were 
still a child at her knee. He, the man of great physical 
and moral courage, would look anxiously at his watch, at 
the end of a long day's tramp, as the darkness deepened, 
and in spite of the protests of companions, who were tired 
and wished to lag behind, he would lengthen out that un- 
wearying stride of his in order to be at the gate where he 
knew his mother would be watching for him, exactly at the 

276 



MANOACH 277 

moment he had promised her. In the embrace of his in- 
timate affection he included his sisters. His daily letters 
home were usually addressed "Dearest Mother and EHsa- 
beth or Sarah," or " Girls" ; frequently, "Dear Everybody." 
The daily program at Manoach was a simple one. In 
the morning his large correspondence and work upon his 
various annual reports, was followed by the "chores" ; his 
boyhood skill in carpentry was retained and Manoach was 
furnished with tables, bookcases and chairs of his own work- 
manship. In the afternoon he would walk down the canon 
to the cottage of his brother, with whom he had always main- 
tained intimacy and in whose children he found deep joy. 
In the evening there was reading aloud about the open fire, 
and before bedtime, which was fixed by his mother at nine 
o'clock, a game of dominoes without fail. He carried his 
camera wherever he went and took artistic and beautiful 
pictures, which he developed and printed himself, having 
built a dark room and a room for velox printing at Manoach. 
Two or three times a week an all-day's tramp was taken 
among the mountains and once each smnmer there was a 
camping trip of several days, usually to the big country 
around Mt. Evans. This particular mountain, the loftiest 
in that part of Colorado, had a singular fascination for 
Frank Spalding. Every visitor at Manoach was sure of 
being taken up the slope just in front of the house from 
which a glimpse could be gained of the great crags of Mt. 
Evans ; and if the guest only stayed long enough, he could 
generally count on a nearer acquaintance with the noble 
peak. To roam far above timber line over the vast bowlder 
fields of precipitous ledges of this mighty mountain was 
the greatest pleasure of Frank Spalding in the summer. 
"No one," he declared, "has seen a mountain until he has 
been on top of it." 



278 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

For Manoach he longed as the summer approached, and 
when the month was over he looked back upon it with 
wistful regret. No inducements to be summer preacher 
in New York or Philadelphia could take one day from 
Manoach, as they could not persuade him to take a day 
from his regular work. When he preached in Trinity and 
Grace, New York, and St. Paul's, Boston, it was on one of 
his begging trips; at other times he reluctantly put such 
temptations behind him. "When one is preaching to a 
handful of people out here it is an opportunity or a tempta- 
tion to address a crowd iq the East. But I'm clear in my 
own mind, one cannot be the bishop of a Western diocese 
and an eloquent preacher in New York." At Manoach he 
preached every Sunday for the people and summer visitors, 
and always ministered to them in time of sorrow or death. 

To One Who Had Lost a Brother 

The very rush and fret and worry to this life makes one feel 
the blessedness of those who rest from their labors when they 
leave behind them noble works. Sad as it is I can't help feel- 
ing that there is a glory about it too, Hke that of those who die 
in battle, living just long enough to know that the fight has been 
won. Surely all the sadness comes to us, and it is selfishness 
which prompts us to wish they were still with us. I feel so sure 
that death is just an event in endless life and that after it, comes 
greater knowledge and nobler service and deeper love and higher 
joy, that when it comes to those I know, I feel that I am untrue 
to the best I know if I do not try to feel a solemn happiness for 
them. They have been promoted — as good and faithful ser- 
vants they have entered into the joy of their Lord. 

To a Friend 

I am convinced that it is a clergyman's duty to speak his mind 
frankly on all matters social and political which have a moral 



MANOACH 279 

side though I believe he can often do it more usefully outside 
his pulpit than in it. I am a socialist but I think I can get in 
my work for socialism elsewhere and as a special lecturer more 
usefully than in the pulpit. In every case that I know about 
where a clergyman has gotten into trouble because of his ac- 
knowledged position in reform movements he had neglected his 
distinctly spiritual duties and his conventional clerical obliga- 
tions. You remember Raymond Robbins' illustration. It is 
a rule of artillery that a caimon must weigh 100 times as much 
as the charge put into it. Social Service is a heavy charge, 
therefore the clergyman who fires it must weigh himself down 
by a careful attention in his personal and official Hfe to all the 
strictly reHgious duties of his life and office. 

I believe it would be interesting to find out how many of 
the bishops, who are supposed to be leaders, belong to the great 
national societies of reform. It came to me as a shock to find in 
the last list of the Anti-tuberculosis Society that the Bishop of 
Los Angeles and myself seemed to be the only members. I 
shall look forward most eagerly to reading your paper. It is a 
most vital subject and I need to learn. Mr. A., who gave the 

cathedral site in S , told me he was absolutely opposed to 

social service. *'When I go to church," he said, "I go to be 
soothed and comforted, not to be irritated." That is typical 
I'm afraid. 

To One Intellectually Troubled 

Aug. 6, 1914. 
IVe been thinking ever since I was at your house at dinner, 
of our conversation about love and law and prayer, and have 
been wanting to try to express more clearly what I meant, and, 
what I feel now, I did not state helpfully then. Do you mind 
my writing you a sort of sermon? This view of God's love and 
the value of prayer in a world governed by law, has come to 
mean a great deal to me — far more than the old, and now I 
think childish idea I used to have. When we were children, 
either in years or in mental development — our thought of 



28o FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

God was on the level with our thought of man. It must always 
be so, for man is the highest symbol we have of personal action 
and power, and we must rise from that to our thought of God. 
As children the best man to our thinking was the man who gave 
us just exactly what we wanted and when we wanted it. So 
we thought of God as One who was all powerful, and therefore 
in an instant could and would give us just what we wanted. It 
was in this simple spirit we offered our prayer, just as R — says 
"Cousin Frank, do another trick." Now when we grow older, 
when we become men, we put away childish things in every 
sphere save reHgion. We know that the strong, true man is 
not the man whose action is determined by every request we 
may make to him, but rather whose action is decided by high 
principles of honor and justice and wisdom. These virtues 
do not exclude love, — they are the foundation of love, — with- 
out them the action would not be loving. Therefore I feel sure, 
our thought of God, if it be a grown, mature thought, must rise 
from this truer thought of man, and we must think of Him as 
guided by the most perfect justice and wisdom, in order that 
He may be perfect love. Now this does not destroy prayer, it 
really saves it. If you are sure that a man is the very soul of 
honor and will not grant any request which is not a wise request, 
you are not deterred from asking his help. He is of all men the 
one to whom you will go in diflSiculty. Or take this illustration. 
You once told me that when you found that there was no Santa 
Claus, you doubted the existence of God. To you, as a child, 
Christmas joy depended upon that fantastic, whimsical figure. 
Presents, to be really presents, must have been manufactured at 
the North Pole, brought down by Reindeer, and through the 
chimney. You prayed that Santa Claus would not fail to be 
generous and would bring you just the things you had been long- 
ing for. Now, as a mother, when you know the mother and 
father love, the loving planning for the children's Christmas joy, 
isn't Christmas more wonderful than the old Santa Claus idea 
could possibly be? And if you, as a mother, want to give to 
children the highest joy, the most lasting value, do you not think 



MANOACH 281 

of laws of health, laws of unselfishness, laws of fairness, and 
obey those laws absolutely? 

And one can press this analogy even farther, I think. "God 
treats us as sons*' the Epistle to the Hebrews says. His knowl- 
edge of the real worth of life is far deeper and truer than ours, 
as much greater than ours as ours is greater than our children's, 
"and of very faithfulness He may cause us to be troubled." 
The old comfort of the hope of inmiortality, — that is — that 
we shall have such a good time in heaven that we can put up 
with trouble here, is of course small and mean, but the confidence 
of immortahty brings a comfort and strength which is not small 
and mean. It means that life is so wonderful that its values are 
not to be judged by the fleeting joys of this life, any more than 
the joys of this life are to be judged by the joy a baby gets out 
of a rattle. To have had a chance to cultivate faith and 
patience, and purity and love and truthfulness, and humility 
and courage and steadfastness and obedience, is proof enough 
of the love of the God Who gives the Chance to us, and Who 
shows us ways in which these really great things can be 
won, not by over-riding law, but by obeying law, not by 
thinking of Him as a law breaker, but rather by thinking of 
Him as One Who is unfailingly and eternally all that our 
consciences tell us we ought to be. 

The more I think this out, the clearer it is to me, that the 
conviction of God as a God of law, does not destroy love, but 
guarantees it, — does not silence prayer, but gives us a confident 
encouragement. 

Frank was the life of the family gathering. So quick 
to make and see fun, so big hearted and kindly behind his 
teasing and humor that the sun burst forth when he arrived 
and went under a cloud on his departure. There was a 
" Poetry ^^ game which the family played in which each 
wrote an anonymous doggerel verse. Frank^s was so unique 
and funny that all recognized his handiwork the moment 



282 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

it was read, looked for it, and applauded. One of the clever- 
est of his screeds was *^The Bible for the Twentieth Cen- 
tury Child" which found its way into print. It was a take- 
off on the Higher Criticism of the Bible. Written as a joke, 
it did not represent Spalding's real convictions. He ac- 
cepted the main results of historical criticism, though he 
always maintained the somewhat skeptical attitude of the 
man of affairs toward the claimed results of purely Hterary 
criticism. He once declared that he would like to write 
a book to show that all the critics were wrong and that the 
Fourth Gospel was really the first and primary Gospel. 
The Fourth Gospel more than any other seemed to him to 
let one into the real mind of Christ. 

For the judgment of his mother and sisters he had pro- 
found respect. His article on Church Unity, published 
in the * Atlantic Monthly ' in May, 1913, was written in Salt 
Lake City in the spring and sent to the family with the in- 
junction, "Make such changes in this as you think fit." 
They talked it all over at Manoach in the summer. His 
mother was a conservative churchwoman, and with her clear 
understanding of that position and gift of expression she 
was able always to help Frank see how a large element in the 
Church would take his utterances. One of his sisters was as 
rationalistic as himself, and the other, an artist, appreciated 
the aesthetic side of ritualism. His own family, therefore, 
was a transcript of the ecclesiastical family. As Spalding 
finished his great address in the Cathedral of St. John the 
Divine he turned partly toward the high altar as he spoke 
of the spiritual food the Church had for working-men. 
"That reference," exclaimed one man, "won me. I was 
antagonized by what he said up to that point." Spalding's 
unique ability to reach all sorts and conditions of church- 
manship, in spite of his pronounced Broad Churchmanship, 



MANOACH 283 

was due in no small degree to his family who pointed out to 
him the little things that offend. 

The object of the '^Atlantic" article was to prove that 
if we are ever to have Christian Unity it will be because 
the prayer of the Commission on Faith and Order is not 
answered. ''So long as the chief business of ecclesiastical 
organizations was to teach dogmas, isolation was inevitable 
and desirable. . . . When, however, religious societies accept 
the obHgation of social service, combination is necessary 
for efficiency.'' He insisted that in planning for Christian 
unity, ethical and reHgious values are of the first importance. 
The problem is psychological, not theological. We can 
learn about human nature if we try : and when we know 
human nature we can so order it, that God can find His 
way in. What is needed to-day is neither a creed nor an 
accredited order of priests, but a society in which every 
child of man can find moral strength and spiritual joy. 
The United Church of the future must provide for three 
varieties of religious experience — the man who satisfies 
his religious craving through the senses; the man who, 
like Hegel, worships by thinking; the man to whom God 
comes in a subliminal uprush. As for the future organiza- 
tion of religious experience the article, with keen analysis, 
exposed the theory of ''organism'' which many in his own 
Church were advocating. He also declared that Congre- 
gationalism and Presbyterianism are admittedly illogical 
in the mission field. "Possibly the Methodist form of 
Episcopal leadership may be more useful than either the 
Roman, the Anglican or the Greek. That can be decided 
on practical grounds ; it is by fruits, not by roots, we are 
to be judged. Christianity, however, is a historic religion, 
a truth so important that risks must be taken to prevent 
its being forgotten. That truth of fundamental importance 



284 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

will be safeguarded by the preservation of the Historic 
Episcopate/^ For the proposed World Conference on 
Faith and Order Spalding had no use. Such a proposal 
^'was much as if, when a convention of mothers had 
shown complete unanimity of opinion in praising the 
glory and dignity of motherhood and the beauty and 
promise of childhood, some wise one should decide that 
it would be a good time to secure agreement on the 

best formula for sterilizing milk Christian Unity 

will never come until the followers of Jesus Christ realized 
that His religion depends not upon exact thinking, but 
upon Christlike living." 

In this article in the "Atlantic," Bishop Spalding worked 
out an idea of unity which he had been turning over in his 
mind and discussing with his friends for several years. It 
represented his deliberate judgment, based upon his study 
of Christian history, his wide experience in missions and 
his association with men of other churches. It seemed to 
some of his own colleagues little less than schismatic. "In 
spite of that article I love you still," wrote one of his old 
friends. In his own experience the religion of Jesus was a 
vital and glowing reality, beside which the external expres- 
sions of faith and order were as nothing. It was this reli- 
gious reality that impressed men who came under the spell 
of his influence. A little boy who knew Spalding was once 
told that he must grow up to be a good man like his father. 
"What do little boys do who haven^t any father?" was his 
query. Then he answered it himself. " Oh, I know. They 
have Christ and Mr. Spalding." 

Although he based his faith in the unity of the Church 
on experience, nevertheless he found in the Church idea, 
which is especially emphasized by those communions which 
claim the privilege of historic orders, a constant source of 



MANOACH 285 

inspiration and support. In his consecration as a bishop 
in a historical succession he felt that his Church had given 
him a commission which guaranteed to him an authority 
in his work for righteousness which his extreme modesty 
would scarcely have claimed, if his lot had been cast in 
another communion. This sense that his work was not 
the work of an individual simply, but was an organic part 
of the Church which he represented, and had a value over 
and above the purely personal element in it, while it did 
not express itself in adventitious forms, was a distinct ele- 
ment of power in his religious work. "A commission,'^ 
he declared in the sermon at the consecration of Bishop 
Sanford, "does not make a coward a hero, but it gives a 
brave man a chance to fight." It was not the office but 
the consecrated manhood that was put into it, saving it 
from being a mere office, — that measures its usefulness. 

On August 15, 1 91 4, Bishop Spalding left Manoach for 
Salt Lake. 

A Postal 

6.20 A.M. Sunday. 

Just coming to Salt Lake over 16 hours late but in good order. 
People in tourist cars are all good natured. The Senior Warden 
of Fond du Lac treated me to dinner last night — to pay me, 
I guess, for giving lower berth to his wife and daughter. I go 
on to Ogden. 

The war had broken out and Bishop Spalding's first 
sermon, on his return, was on Peace. When he first visited 
the Uintah country and saw the soldiers drilling at the 
fort, he wrote, " what a waste of money it is, learning to 
kill." Closer acquaintaince with our soldiers on the reser- 
vation disgusted him with their drunkenness and idleness. 
Spalding repudiated the whole idea of a military establish- 
ment. When militarism revealed itself in August 191 4 



286 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

he at once prepared a lecture and sermon on peace, and 
gave them both in every town he visited in August and 
September. At the great Labor Day meeting in the Ca- 
thedral he put before the working-men the duty of the 
workers of the world to unite for peace. At Tooele the 
Socialists wanted him to speak for Socialism, but he spoke 
to them on War and Peace. 

Salt Lake, September ii, 1914. 

The war is certainly horrible. I'm thinking of trying for the 
prize of $1000 offered for the best essay by a clergyman on 
Peace. I have an idea I want to try to work out, i.e., How can 
we substitute ideals of peaceful heroism for ideals of warlike 
heroism ? That is the big problem. St. Paul used the illustra- 
tion of the soldier for the struggles of the man for right living 
and made it respectable. I feel that we must cut that all out. 
The teacher, the thinker, the explorer, the inventor, the worker, 
the preacher, the physician and nurse are all finer t5rpes of the 
hero and patriot than the soldier and yet we go on singing "On- 
ward, Christian Soldiers!" 

I'm not offering these samples as a finished product but just 
to give the idea. What do you think of it? When one thinks 
of the horror of war and realizes that the soldier is a sort of sur- 
vival of a savage barbarous age, surely we ought not to dignify 
the idea by use in the worship of One who said, Blessed are the 
peace makers. In the baptism service we ought to change the 
words, "Fight manfully under His banner," to "Work faithfully 
for His cause" or something which doesn't suggest war. I 
don't believe our Lord ever used the soldier metaphor. St. 
Paul introduced it and it became popular when the great heroes 
were soldiers. That time is gone we hope for ever. In the In- 
dian country where soldiers are many of them drunkards and 
all of them are lazy, what decent idea of the Christian can the 
soldier possibly give to the Indian child. 



MANOACH 287' 

HYMN 
Onward, Christian workers, 

1 



1 
Laboring for peace, 



By the love of Jesus 
Making strife to cease. 
Christ, the lowly toiler. 
Tells us what to seek, 
Wretched are the mighty, 
Blessed are the meek. 

Chorus 

Onward, Christian workers, 
Marching on to peace, 
By the love of Jesus 
Making strife to cease. 

At His sign of triumph, 
Earthly loss seems gain. 
He will help us carry 
Each his load of pain. 
Hate and cold indifference 
Yield to prayer and praise, 
As each brother labors 
Helpless ones to raise. — Chorus. 

Like a mighty workshop 
Is the Church of Christ, 
Making all that's needed. 
Everything unpriced. 
Working all together. 
Free from greed and hate. 
Competition ended, 
All cooperate. — Chorus. 

Wealth and dollars vanish, 
Riches rise and wane. 



288 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

But unselfish service 
Cannot be in vain. 
Selfishness shall never 
Make our love grow cold, 
Christ's '^well done" is better 
Than a world of gold. — Chorus. 

Onward then, ye people, 
Join our earnest throng, 
Helping right to triumph. 
Overcoming wrong ; 
This the only tribute 
Welcomed by our King, 
May we give the weary 
Grateful songs to sing. — Chorus. 



HYMN I 

Go forward, Christ's explorer, i 

His strength shall make you bold ; | 

Through deadly, torrid jungles | 

To polar regions cold. ^ 

Wherever on this planet I 

The feet of men have trod, \ 

Your brothers must be followed j 

With Christ's good news from Gk)d. j 

Go forward, Christ's explorer, 1 

Seek honest men and strong ■ 

Who love the ways of honor ] 

And hate the deeds of wrong ; i 

Make them the valiant leaders, ] 

Support them in their search • 

For every hidden weakness ' 

In Nation and in Church. i 

i 



MANOACH 289 

Go forward, Christ's explorer, 
God's love for every age 
Is writ in golden letters 
Upon the sacred page. 
The reverent, fearless scholar 
Who comes with open mind 
Through God's own Spirit's guidance 
The truth divine shall find. 

Go forward, Christ's explorer, 
Scan well the Ufe within. 
Trace back each sinful motive, 
Cast out each secret sin. 
Then throw life's gates wide open 
To Christ the Light of Light ; 
His truth is perfect freedom. 
His grace is holy might. 

HYMN 

Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, 
Ye thinkers true and brave. 
Face every problem frankly, 
The truth alone can save. 
The false must be rejected 
By students free and bold 
Till every lie is vanquished 
And Christ's full truth is told. 

Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, 
The Conscience call obey, 
For error's blinding darkness 
Obscures the Hght of day. 
Men wander, lost in error. 
Their minds with doubts are rife, 
Show them God's light in Jesus, 
The Way, the Truth, the Life. 



290 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, 
Though long and dark the night, 
The sun of truth shall brighten 
The whole wide world with light. 
And those who struggle bravely 
The path of truth to trace, 
In God^s good time shall know Him 
And worship face to face. 

To His Mother 

Sept. 6, 1914. 
The Dean preached a good sermon. 

He has been reading Rauschenbusch and while he agrees with 
it he wanted also to show that the Church has always stood for 
social righteousness in some sense. He told about Hildebrand 
and other really great champions of the rights of the people. 
What he said I suppose is true in a sense, but somehow I can't 
feel quite the need of always apologizing for the Church. 

The sermon went very well and though of course many people 
didn't agree with me I think I "spoke the truth in love.'' The 
Church was crowded, many standing up. I'm off to Tooele to 
speak on Peace. They asked me to make a Socialist speech but 
I said it would be a serious mistake if I was to speak for Socialism 
when there is a political campaign on. If I became a mere par- 
tisan I lose all chance of getting a hearing as a candid student. 
So I'm going to speak on the "Moral and Economic Waste of 
War." 

Sept. 7, 1914. 

What a comfort it is to be able to pray for people. I suppose 
if we had more faith we would not want to do any thing else, or, 
I mean, wouldn't think we could do anything more. 

I don't think I agree with you in always using the Prayer Book 
words if possible. Though that may make us appreciate the 
values in the Prayer Book it does seem to me that getting away 
from the old words and their old connections makes the present 
need more real and vivid. 



MANOACH 291 

Sept. 9, 1914. 

Rowland Hall opened to-day with a good lot of pupils old and 
new. The new teachers seem all right and A. looks capable. 

Do you know it has cost over and above the receipts $6516 to 
keep Rowland Hall going. This year repairs and improvements 
amount to $2574.33 of it, but it is a question in my mind whether 

it pays. Schools like Miss M 's have raised the salaries of 

teachers and the standard of what a teacher can be expected to do. 

Salt Lake, Sept. 10, 1914. 
Mrs. W. W. R. took me auto riding with Prof. Clay of Yale, 
who lectured before the Archeological Society. Prof. Clay is 
much interested in the "Book of Abraham." He suggests that 
we draw up a set of questions on the Mormon Literature and 
submit it to scholars of the world. He says he knows lots of 
them at home and abroad and that he will help. He thinks he 
can get seventy-five opinions himself. I don't know whether it 
is a good plan or not. Would my mother beUeve that Moses 
didn't write the Pentateuch if seventy-five scholars said he didn't ? 

Sept. II. 

I had three weddings yesterday and got in fees $35. I did 
need it too because I agreed to help pay for the Labor Service 
program and also for a G. F. S. girl who had to go to the hos- 
pital. I think the Dean and Mr. Reese were very good to let 
me in. 

My schedule for September is as follows: Garfield, Park 
City, Eureka, Provo, Logan, Salt Lake. 

Rev. J. C. Mitchell, whom I knew in the Seminary, is coming 
to Salt Lake for six weeks or more and give us his services. Per- 
haps he will go with me up to the Uintah Country and visit the 
Indians. 

Sep. 14, 1914. 

I've been asked to speak to the University of Minnesota in 
the Andrew Presbyterian Church if I go. That is getting off 



292 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

the Speaking end easy and IVe accepted. I like to speak to 
students. 

Sep. 22: 

I'm off to Provo and Eureka to-morrow a.m. to see the parsons 
and lecture on war. Still in doubt about the special meeting of 
the House of Bishops in Minneapohs. Just had a letter from 
Williams of Michigan. He expects to be there. It makes me 
really want to go — to see all the old friends. 

I'm trying to write an article for the Christian Socialist to make 
the rich understand the poor and the poor the rich. It's a hard 
job, but it's interesting. 

Sep. 24, 1914. D. & R. G. R.R. 

I'm on my way from Eureka to Provo. I wanted to see how 
the Rices were getting on at Eureka. And then there was last 
week an awful accident at Eureka, 12 men were caved in the 1600 
ft. level of the Centennial Eureka mine. One was rescued, five 
bodies have been recovered but six bodies are still under tons 
of earth and timber and rock. Four of the dead men belong to 
our church. I attended a meeting of all the citizens to find out 
the sentiment as to whether a decent respect for the dead re- 
quired all the mines to shut down until the rest of the bodies 
were recovered. It was decided, I thought most wisely, that the 
work should go on because the living needed the wages. The 
Secretary of the Union told me that conditions were so dangerous 
where the bodies were, that, as he expressed it, " a man's life wasn't 
worth fifteen cents." And yet 500 men have volunteered to 
work there. Only one man can work at a time, as soon as he 
is tired another relieves him. I delivered my lecture on "peace" 
and the church was full. I hope to speak on "Peace" again to- 
night in Provo. Jones is certainly taking hold splendidly in 
Salt Lake. 

I'm working on an article I promised long time ago for the 
"Christian Socialists." No certainty yet about the House of 
Bishops. I suppose it will be decided to-morrow. I think it 
will be grand to have a baby in the house because I've always 



MANOACH 293 

loved babies. I hope you are having as lovely weather as we 
are, not a cloud in the sky. Best love to all. 

With these words of sympathy for men who toil and 
admiration for their industrial heroism, with hope of world 
peace, with joyful anticipation of the new life which was to 
come to his friends and with best love to his dearest mother 
and sisters, this radiant spirit, in the fraction of a second, 
passed from life into the light eternal. 

Bishop Spalding left his house at nine in the evening, to 
post this letter and others in the mail box at the corner of E 
Street and South Temple. As he stepped into South Temple 
Street an automobile came down the grade at high speed. 
Beyond any doubt he saw it coming. It was on the wrong 
side of the street, its right wheels in the left car tracks. 
The Bishop apparently expected the machine to pass in 
front of him, where it had two-thirds of the broad avenue. 
The driver, on the other hand, apparently judging that he 
would just about cross over before she reached him, turned 
the machine a little to the left. Athlete though he was and 
quick as a tiger on his feet, so great was the speed of the car 
that he was unable to escape it. It struck him and crashed 
into the steel electric pole with such terrific impact that 
it indented it an inch and more. He was instantly killed. 
At the steering wheel was a girl of eighteen years, who bore 
an unenviable reputation in Salt Lake as a reckless driver. 
The editors of all the newspapers next day cried out for 
"something to prevent huge machines, with their throbbing 
engines driving them on as agencies of death, rushed over 
the people's streets at 'most any rate of speed their drivers 
desire, driven by girls who go into hysterics at the thought 
of a mouse or faint at the sight of a bleeding finger and who 
yet take chances of facing a situation that would try the 



294 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

nerve of a stout-hearted man. They love the sport, and 
they wouldn't purposely hurt any one for their lives." 
Whether it is folly or criminal intent, the ejffect is frequently 
the same. 

Two days later his comrades in the ministry stood beside 
his silent form in St. Mark's Cathedral, and a steady Hne 
of people of every race and creed passed by. In a church 
filled to the sidewalk with Gentiles and Mormons, working- 
men and employers, rich and poor, Paul Jones, Dean CoUa- 
day, and Bishop Thomas, who hurried from Wyoming on 
receipt of the sad news of the death of his friend, read the 
burial service and the combined choirs of St. Mark's and 
St. Paul's sang : 

The Strife is o'er, the battle done, 

The victory of Life is won. 

« 

His clergymen carried their leader to the station and 
aboard the private car, which the very men who had with- 
drawn the railroad pass magnanimously furnished to take 
the body to Denver. There, in the city of his youth, the 
coffin was borne to the Cathedral on the shoulders of young 
business men, some of whom had been the companions 
of his boyhood and who loved him in his manhood. The 
service was read by Dean Hart, Bishop Paddock of 
Western Oregon, Bishop Brewster of Western Colorado, 
Bishop Thomas of Wyoming, and Bishop WiUiams of 
Nebraska. And there in the Cathedral were his sisters, 
his brother and his beloved mother, strengthened to face 
the terrible ordeal by faith in the Providence whose ways 
she sought in vain to understand. Amid the crash of thunder 
and flash of lightning they carried him to Riverside Ceme- 
ter}^ and laid his body beside that of his father. 

In the passing of Frank Spalding America realized that 



MANOACH 295 

she had lost a great son. ^'With a very clear mind, great 
power of analysis, an admirable abihty to state his posi- 
tion in lucid language," said the ' Outlook ' of New York, 
^^ Bishop Spalding was a notable figure on every occasion 
when he was present and in every assembly in which he 
took part/' ^ Collier's Weekly ' headed an appreciative edi- 
torial with the title, "A Man who Understood/' In the 
Princeton * Alimani Weekly ' he was called "one of the most 
useful sons of Princeton." ' The Survey ' recognized Bishop 
Spalding as the champion of the poor. Glowing tributes 
and appreciations appeared in the Church and Socialist 
press throughout the country, from the pens of many men 
and women who were irresistibly moved to give utterance 
to their admiration in prose and verse or tell of some ex- 
perience they had had with him. ^The Living Church,' 
which had hesitatingly endorsed his election as bishop, 
declared him "one of the most lovable of men." In Salt 
Lake, Erie and Denver where he had Hved, the editors of 
all the daily papers with remarkable penetration and insight 
gave testimony to the outstanding qualities of the man : 
his great sympathy for the struggling masses, his broad 
and active mind, his courage to fight for his ideals, his out- 
spokenness and fearlessness. "He would have been a 
Gautier or St. Bernard eight hundred years ago, he might 
have been a Luther three hundred years ago, for his high 
thoughts were always backed by ample if unpretentious cour- 
age." The reality and beauty of his religious life found wit- 
nesses among the ministers of all churches, Roman Catholic, 
Mormon, Jewish and Protestant. "Like the Master" they 
aU declared, "Our souls are bowed in grief, and are cr^ng 
to his soul : Knowest thou how much we love thee?" 

On All Saints' Day, Nov. i, 1914, two thousand people 
packed Salt Lake Theater for a service in commemoration of 



296 FRANKLIN SPENCER SPALDING 

Bishop Spalding. The Mormons were represented among 
the speakers by Hon. Brigham H. Robert, the SociaUsts 
by their leader, Mr. William M. Knerr, the Churches by 
Rev. Elmer L. Goshen, a Congregational minister, and the 
Professions by Dr. E. G. Gowans. The theater orchestra 
offered its services, and played HandeFs " Largo '^ and 
Meyerbeer's "March of the Prophets." The memorial 
address was given by Rt. Rev. Charles D. Williams, the 
man whom Spalding looked eagerly forward to meeting 
again as he penned one of his last letters. "Franklin 
Spalding was my nearest friend in the House of Bishops. 
He was to me a tower of strength. I leaned on him, I got 
courage from him to try to do in my smaller way the things 
he was doing so splendidly in his larger way." Such was 
the personal testimony of one great soul to another. With 
deep insight and intimate knowledge Bishop Williams, in 
eloquent and telling phrase, told of Spalding's tenderness 
and gentleness of heart as well as of his manly godliness 
and mental and spiritual virility. A unique combination of 
the hero and the saint, he called him, of the fiery prophet of 
righteousness and the humble, self -giving servant of his 
fellows. "The sobs of Hosea lay behind the denunciation 
of Amos. He was the prophet of the conscience and heart 
alike." "God grant that we all may catch something of 
his spirit, that we may carry on his work and stand for his 
cause in some measure as he did !" 

Elsewhere, also, the noblest spirits of the Church bore 
testimony to him. " He was the manliest, most godly, 
knightly soul whom I have ever met," said Bishop Rowe of 
Alaska. " The uncompromising character of his righteous- 
ness and its naivete," wrote Bishop Brent of the Philippines, 
" made his manhood a beacon." " If he has done as much 
for the people of Utah as he has for those of us who have 



MANOACH 297 

tried to follow him at a distance," said Bishop Lawrence of 
Massachusetts, " they and their children will rise up and 
call him blessed. Would that we had told him what we 
thought of him. We did not know that he would go so 
soon. Perhaps he knows now." 

So, in crowded theater and cathedral, and in the columns 
of the daily press and leading weekhes of the nation, tes- 
timony was borne by small and great to the character and 
accompUshments of Franklin Spencer Spalding. But, what 
may be a more enduring tribute, his memory was treasured 
in the hearts of the poor. Atchee is a small railroad town on 
the Uintah Railway in Western Colorado. When visiting, 
as his custom was three times a year, the missions in the 
"Uintah Country," Bishop Spalding would usually pur- 
posely stop over the twenty-four hours until the next train, 
and not only hold service, but call on every family in the 
little town, baptizing several infants and making himself the 
friend of all, whatever their religious affliations or antip- 
athies. Atchee was not in his district after 1907, but he 
knew that this remote region could rarely be visited by the 
Bishop of Western Colorado. When the news of his death 
reached Atchee the people assembled at the little school, 
without minister or other leader. One woman opened the 
Prayer Book, and with broken voice, amid the half sup- 
pressed sobs of men and women as they knelt about her, 
she read the burial service. 

Of heroic mold, with a spirit brave and gentle ; clean- 
cut in his thinking and forceful in his speech ; with a heart 
that beat in sympathy with all who suffered ; with the 
vision of an economic and spiritual order wherein the wage 
earners are to be masters of nature and brothers of men, 
possessing all they produce, Franklin Spencer Spalding 
lived in his time and place, a man among men and a bishop 
such as we shall not soon see the like again. 



THE following pages contain advertisements of a 
few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects. 



Henry Codman Potter 

SEVENTH BISHOP OF NEW YORK 

By GEORGE HODGES 

Illustrated; cloth, 8vo, $3.50 

"He has performed a labor of love with extraordinarily pains- 
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people of the city of New York, to whose advancement in all 
that is good Henry Codman Pottet devoted the best years of a 
tremendously useful Hfe." — New York Evening Post. 

''An admirable portrait of a great churchman who figured prom- 
inently in the history of the nation and whose Hfe and labors are 
of interest to all thinking people." — San Francisco Bulletin. 

"His biography makes excellent good reading throughout 
its 381 pages. ... In this, as in his other works, Dean Hodges 
is scholarly, clear and direct. His personaHty is obtruded just 
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dramatic and picturesque episodes." — Chicago Evening Post. 

"Dean Hodges' biography is a deHghtful piece of work which 
will be enjoyed by those outside his own communion as well as 
by churchmen." — New York Herald. 

"Dean Hodges' biography is a fine monument to a church- 
man of whom his city and country are justly proud." — Nation. 

"His work is interesting not only as the biography of one of 
the foremost men of our day, but as a valuable document in the 
history of the Episcopal Church." — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

"Here is a biography which with exceptional completeness 
fills the place of autobiography. The subject of it could not 
himself have been more sympathetic toward his work as church- 
man and citizen. . . . He writes of his subject with fine blend- 
ing of moderation and earnestness, a just balancing of judicial 
restraint and aggressive zeal. ... A volume which is interest- 
ing to read as a narrative and which is of inestimable value for 
information and for reference." — New York Tribune. 



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Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Three Religious Leaders of Oxford and Their 

Movements : John Wycliffe, John Wesley, 

and John Henry Newman 

By S. PARKES CADMAN 8vo, $2.50 

"It is a valuable addition to the library of the student, and 
its treatment of these three leaders is both a scholarly and an 
impartial interpretation of them and their times." — Outlook, 

"Dr. Cadman^ is something more than an annalist, who 
searches archives and surfeits his readers with a mass of docu- 
mentary evidence. He sets his three great leaders in the midst 
of their times; and we see them, not as 20th century figures, 
but as they who knew them in the flesh saw them and felt their 
influence. One is not compelled to wade through a great mass 
of irrelevant material to get at the heart of these movements, 
as the first hand student must do who would read Wesley's 
Journals, Newman's 'Apologia,' 'Tracts and Sermons,' and 
the exhaustive story of the Lollard movement. Moreover, it 
is helpful to have the secret and the philosophy of these move- 
ments stated by a painstaking student whose spiritual and his- 
torical sense and discernment have raised him to primacy among 
American preachers." — Boston Herald. 

"Dr. Cadman has written with great breadth and acumen. 
The work has been done in a thorough and scholarly way, which 
will make his book of importance in social, as well as in church 
history." — Boston Advertiser. 

"A volume which for scholarly workmanship, for discriminating 
insight and estimate, as well as for literary grace and finish, has 
few to match it in recent religious literature." — Chicago Herald. 

"They will refresh the heart of those who would believe in 
the possibility of human progress, and they will preach patience 
to those who wonder at the long delay of the commonwealth of 
the spirit." — New York Tribune. 

"The book is testimony to an informing and constructive spirit 
of Christianity in the writer. The audiences, to whom these 
studies were originally addressed, are to be congratulated. Pop- 
ular exposition, of such a high level, and of so scholarly and cath- 
olic a spirit, is rare in this country." — Dial. 

"The style is dignified and straightforward, without undue 
ornament, yet not dull." — Nation. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Life of Clara Barton 

By PERCY H. EPLER 

Decorated cloth, illustrated, $2.50 

** 'The Life of Clara Barton' in its utilizing of original material, 
in its orderly sequence and telling use of incident and conver- 
sation, and in its insight into character, is a volume well fitted 
to convey to the pubHc mind the story of one whom the world 
'dehghted to honor.'" — Boston Daily Advertiser. 

*'A fitting memorial to one of the world's great women." — 
New York Globe. 

''An inspiring and interesting account of a noble life devoted 
to the service of himaanity — the hfe of a woman whom General 
Nelson A. Miles has proclaimed 'the greatest humanitarian the 
world has ever known,' and who during the Civil War held a 
place in the hearts of our soldiers similar to that of Florence 
Nightingale in those of the men who fought in the Crimea." — 
New York Herald. 

"A memorable, intensely interesting biography of one of the 
great women of yesterday." — Bookseller, Newsdealer and 
Stationer. 

"The life of Clara Barton is a human document of the utmost 
importance and interest, and it is this human story that is now 
given to the public." — Chicago Evening Post, 

"Infinite details of unbounded interest crowd one on top of 
another. . . . Her biography is one of both personal and his- 
toric interest." — Boston Transcript. 

"The narrative is complete, exhaustive — a portrait painted 
full length." — Philadelphia North American. 

"Tears flow unbidden at scenes depicting Miss Barton tend- 
ing the sick and wounded, feeding the hungry in the open fields 
with shells bursting all around her, but the heart glows with 
pride at the courage of this frail little woman in scenes of fright- 
ful tragedy." — Literary Digest. 



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Fublisliers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



David Livingstone 

By C. SILVESTER HORNE 

New edition, i2mo, illustrated, $1.25 

"Mr. Home has done a fine service in presenting the charac- 
teristic and strategic facts of the life and work of Livingstone 
and of his character and his service to humanity. . . . With 
fine discrimination, with skill in dramatic simplicity, Mr. Home 
has made the great hero of Africa live and has brought into bold 
relief the moral qualities and lessons of his life." — Review and 
Expositor. 

"We doubt if the story could be told more stirringly in brief 
compass than it is in Mr. Home's book. By clever and free 
use of Livingstone's diaries and letters he is made to tell his own 
story in large part — and a wonderful story it was, of devotion, 
sacrifice, hardship, persistence, and adventure, through many 
dangers with beasts and men." — The Outlook. 

"A very good biography. Gives in small compass a clear, 
simple narrative of Livingstone's adventurous and useful Hfe." 
— New York Times. 

"His vigorous style is well adapted to the portrayal of a life 
so full of activity and courageous undertaJting as that of Living- 
stone." — The Independent. 

"Here is given a graphic story of the patience and knowledge 
of human nature that enabled Livingstone, without any aid, to 
break up the infamous slave trade in many districts." — San 
Francisco Chronicle. 

"Full of inspiration and information." — Philadelphia Press. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



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